Amoeba eating diatoms

[Wes]

Found this in the local river after floating a coverslip on a water sample for a few days.

[Microscopy_is_fun]

Impressive picture! It seems these amoeba like a "glass of chlorophyll". Despite being such a soft and squishy organism, they swallow their "protein shake" together with the glass container.

[imkap]

Very interesting subject and a great image...

[dtsh]

Betting that amoeba won't return the fancy casserole dish when it's done eating, just leave it wherever and move on...

Nice find. I love when I stumble upon random events that almost certainly happen regularly, but I rarely see.

[Javier]

Amazing!

[tlansing]

Nice picture, Wes! I see that this amoeba also has many nuclei. How do you fish the coverslips from the surface of the water? I have tried using a coverslip forceps but I seem to end up with one corner or edge getting immersed.

Tim

[Wes]

Thanks everyone for the interest and comments!

How do you fish the coverslips from the surface of the water? I have tried using a coverslip forceps but I seem to end up with one corner or edge getting immersed.

Hi Tim,
What works well in my hands are fine point tweezers with a bent tip (I do the bending). A very small contact area between the tweezers and the coverslip helps to reduce the pressure that may results in coverslip immersion as is the case with regular coverslip forceps. Below is an image of the tweezers that I use with a pen for size comparison.

[charlie g]

Beautiful image, thank you Wes. Thank you for the forceps technique tip.

My sense of this still image, is that the amoeba is moving to topleft...and is actually going to leave these frustules behind in short order. Beautiful image. thanks, charlie g

[PeteM]

Wes, I'm hoping to see you come across the hyphenated version: amoeba-eating diatoms.

[Wes]

Beautiful image, thank you Wes. Thank you for the forceps technique tip.

My sense of this still image, is that the amoeba is moving to topleft...and is actually going to leave these frustules behind in short order. Beautiful image. thanks, charlie g

Thanks Charlie. The amoeba had long axopodia but very quickly after it came in my field of view it retracted and seemed somewhat in a hurry to discard the frustules. I suspect there is a light-sensitive component to its behavior.

Wes, I'm hoping to see you come across the hyphenated version: amoeba-eating diatoms.

Amoebophagic diatomaceae that would be quite the discovery. I did, however, observe fungal-like parasites of diatoms most likely from the phylum Chytridomycota. They penetrate the frustule with fine rhizoids and convert the nutritious contents of the diatom into motile zoospores (these apparently play an important role in the transfer of nutrients from diatoms to things like Daphnia and other forms of zooplankton that feed on the energy rich chytrid zoospores).