Came across this in one of samples.
It appears to be a dead shrimp or maybe a cyclops with loads of loose eggs surrounding it's body. The fantastic thing is there is a colony of vorticella feeding on the eggs.
Unsure what type of peritrich they are I'm sure someone can help with that.
EDIT: Are they Orbopyxidiella
Never seen anything like this before.
The X40 video shows the shrimp.
X40 - https://www.flickr.com/photos/154534235 ... ateposted/
100X - https://www.flickr.com/photos/154534235 ... ateposted/
200X - https://www.flickr.com/photos/154534235 ... ateposted/
400X - https://www.flickr.com/photos/154534235 ... ateposted/
Colony of vorticella feeding on a dead shrimp ?
Colony of vorticella feeding on a dead shrimp ?
Leitz SM-Lux
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Bruce Taylor
- Posts: 999
- Joined: Fri Sep 04, 2015 11:34 am
Re: Colony of vorticella feeding on a dead shrimp ?
That was a lot of fun! 
The ciliates are not Vorticella (a genus with spirally contractile stalks), and not Orbopyxidiella (a genus with no "peristomial lip" around the "mouth" end of the cell, and an ovoid macronucleus).
Until that crustacean died, these stalked critters rode around on it, wherever it went, attached to the host organism by their stalks. They are not really considered parasites, because they don't feed on the crustacean itself, but simply feed "commensally," eating little scraps and bacteria that surround the host.
In this case, most members of the colony have come loose from their stalks and are swimming free--something that frequently happens when the host has died. We see some that are still attached to non-contractile stalks. The "zooids" (the bell-shaped cells) have a distinct lip at the peristome. So, these guys are in the family Epistylididae, probably in genus Epistylis.
They are not feeding on the eggs themselves (if that's what those are...I don't know anything about copepods!). They are feeding on particles suspended in the water around them. Epistylis is a filter feeder, and can't consume big chunks of tissue.
The ciliates are not Vorticella (a genus with spirally contractile stalks), and not Orbopyxidiella (a genus with no "peristomial lip" around the "mouth" end of the cell, and an ovoid macronucleus).
Until that crustacean died, these stalked critters rode around on it, wherever it went, attached to the host organism by their stalks. They are not really considered parasites, because they don't feed on the crustacean itself, but simply feed "commensally," eating little scraps and bacteria that surround the host.
In this case, most members of the colony have come loose from their stalks and are swimming free--something that frequently happens when the host has died. We see some that are still attached to non-contractile stalks. The "zooids" (the bell-shaped cells) have a distinct lip at the peristome. So, these guys are in the family Epistylididae, probably in genus Epistylis.
They are not feeding on the eggs themselves (if that's what those are...I don't know anything about copepods!). They are feeding on particles suspended in the water around them. Epistylis is a filter feeder, and can't consume big chunks of tissue.
Re: Colony of vorticella feeding on a dead shrimp ?
Cheers Bruce I'm kicking myself I should have known Epistylis as I've seen them before.
Leitz SM-Lux