Tardigrade eating

[janvangastel]

This tardigrade is eating. The colored stuff in its body is food in its stomach, I suppose. I wonder what de many roundish/ovalish things in its body are.

[MickH]

That’s wonderful.

[ImperatorRex]

Good catch!
The round things maybe kind of coelomocytes?

[Horseflesh]

WOW, super cool!

[janvangastel]

Thanks for all the compliments.

The round things maybe kind of coelomocytes?

Could be, but I don't now. This is the first time I heard of coelomocytes. I have read now what coelomocytes are, but cannot recognize them.

[75RR]

Nice catch and video!

Still not sure why they are also called Water Bears ... Water Piglets would seem a better fit.

[krame]

Great video and fascinating subject.

I'm very new to microscopy, could you tell me a little about your setup?

[janvangastel]

I use a Leitz orthoplan trinocular microscope. The camera is a Panasonic lumix G9 I also use for bird photography. It is connected to the microscope with a cheap 0.5x adapter. For this video (and 95% of my video's) I use oblique illumination.

[krame]

Thanks!

[Javier]

Very impressive!

[microscopeboi]

Nice catch and video!

Still not sure why they are also called Water Bears ... Water Piglets would seem a better fit.

they are often called moss piglets as well as water bears

[Luis Carlos]

The roundish/ovalish things in its body are Coelomocytes (“storage cells”) represent an important part of tardigrade physiology, storing and distributing energy and possibly also having immunological functions.

[krame]

Do you use oblique lighting in conjunction with or instead of darkfield for something like this?

Edit: Oop. Found your post where you describe your method. With pictures.

Thanks!

[SilverWolf]

Wonderful video, I watched this the other day and again today while showing my wife. I really like the effect also, amazing creatures.