Water bear actively feeding

[Lilly Begonia]

So I found one that was moving at last and got video of it. Sorry for the video quality, I'm still tweaking my camera. Shot with 40/0.65 objective.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIY7Gco ... e=youtu.be

[charlie g]

Congrats on this encounter! Can you tell us where you collected this bear from? Quite rapid movements your bear manifests...is this video normal speed? Thanks for sharing your successful bear hunt. Charlie guevara

[charlie g]

Ooops..I see you did tell the habitat you collected your water bears from. Terrific to encounter these wee beasts...there is a US 'water bear society/ registry..no cost...the prof. is encouraging folks to share their bear encounters...sort of like US/ Christmas bird count. Good bear hunting! Charlie guevara

[Lilly Begonia]

Congrats on this encounter! Can you tell us where you collected this bear from? Quite rapid movements your bear manifests...is this video normal speed? Thanks for sharing your successful bear hunt. Charlie guevara

I found that guy in some thick lichen on a tree behind my house which I chopped up and soaked overnight in a petri dish. This morning I put some of it on a slide and there the little guy was. Since then I've found more of them. Here's video of another one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJwrWfEPEKU

I think there's some kind of frame rate thing going on with my camera, it wasn't moving that fast on my screen. ToupLite is kinda hard to figure out. Anyway I've found 9 water bears today, so it was a good day.

[Lilly Begonia]

Ooops..I see you did tell the habitat you collected your water bears from. Terrific to encounter these wee beasts...there is a US 'water bear society/ registry..no cost...the prof. is encouraging folks to share their bear encounters...sort of like US/ Christmas bird count. Good bear hunting! Charlie guevara

Hey, neat! Do you have a link to the US water bear society? I've grown fond of these little guys.

[charlie g]

The good professor I recall is based in Smokie Mtns area...I will look into it and post...perhaps you might try to 'google it'? BTW...other side of the pond, Martin Mach hosts: " the water bear web base, by Martin Mach"...you must, you must google and visit this site.

I sense you have encountered a meiofauna neighbor ( our tribes of water bears)..which offer so much excitement in finding the distributions of their habitats...trees. home gutters, ponds, etc. .

And the promise of their unique biologies, their cryptobiosis abilities...their obvious cherubic charms on observing them...these enhance our world views. Charlie guevara

[Lilly Begonia]

The good professor I recall is based in Smokie Mtns area...I will look into it and post...perhaps you might try to 'google it'? BTW...other side of the pond, Martin Mach hosts: " the water bear web base, by Martin Mach"...you must, you must google and visit this site.

I sense you have encountered a meiofauna neighbor ( our tribes of water bears)..which offer so much excitement in finding the distributions of their habitats...trees. home gutters, ponds, etc. .

And the promise of their unique biologies, their cryptobiosis abilities...their obvious cherubic charms on observing them...these enhance our world views. Charlie guevara

I've become most curious about things I've seen on my slides that look like they might be tardigrade eggs.

[billbillt]

Hello,

Thanks for bringing attention to the elusive tardigrade....

"I've become most curious about things I've seen on my slides that look like they might be tardigrade eggs"

Do you have any photos of your observations you could share?...

Thanks,
BillT

[Lilly Begonia]

Hello,

Thanks for bringing attention to the elusive tardigrade....

"I've become most curious about things I've seen on my slides that look like they might be tardigrade eggs"

Do you have any photos of your observations you could share?...

Thanks,
BillT

Hey Bill, funny you should say that, I've been thinking about tardigrade eggs myself, and I think I've seen them inside the water bears. I think this might be one of them that was ejected:



And here is a tardigrade with what I think are a couple eggs in it, or maybe it just one kind of elongated:



I want very much to get video of a tardigrade expelling eggs, and also of them hatching. What do you think?

[billbillt]

Hi Lilly,

Thanks so much for the quick reply and your postings... I think you are on a great adventure.. Your photos show perfect water bear eggs in fine detail.. A video would be a good addition to your project.. I am looking forward to more of your postings!..

The Best,
BillT

[Lilly Begonia]

Hi Lilly,

Thanks so much for the quick reply and your postings... I think you are on a great adventure.. Your photos show perfect water bear eggs in fine detail.. A video would be a good addition to your project.. I am looking forward to more of your postings!..

The Best,
BillT

Hi Bill, and thank you also for your responses! I just found water bear no. 7, and he's just sitting there doing nothing for now. Yes, it does seem like quite the adventure! Until this I had so little fun. Now I can find hours of entertainment in a chunk of tree lichen! Certainly more entertaining than TV!

So you are sure? That really is a water bear egg? I'm so happy! I'm finding more of them on my current slide, but so far just the one water bear. There may be more, I'm scanning and will prolly do several slides today.

I have some issues to resolve with my video capabilities at present, but hardware is on order to remedy that. The videos I've posted have nothing like the quality I see on my screen while shooting them. I have GOT to fix that!

Hey, could this be a water bear hatching?

[billbillt]

Hi Lilly,

As far as I can tell you are showing WB eggs in your first pictures... As far as the last photo, I am not real sure.. It looks somewhat like a water flea, but I am nowhere near an expert..

Have Fun!,
BillT

[Lilly Begonia]

Hi Lilly,

As far as I can tell you are showing WB eggs in your first pictures... As far as the last photo, I am not real sure.. It looks somewhat like a water flea, but I am nowhere near an expert..

Have Fun!,
BillT

Hey Bill, it kinda looks like the egg opening up. I'm not sure what a water flea is, but then I'm very new to this and so far I've just been lucky to get what I have. Of course I'm not going to stop. I'm sure you know more about this than I do. Other than water bears I see many other things on the slides I can't identify, because I'm a total noob, so I make up names for them until I can find out what they are.

There are these:



I've dubbed them microsoccerball begonae

And then there are these little zoomers that race all over the place:



You can catch one standing still at times, but most of the time they are racing all over the place and are just blurry tracks. I'm calling them microschmutz begonea.

[billbillt]

Hi Lilly,

Google water flea to get a good look at one.. here is a link to a rough but quick paper on identification...

https://www.msnucleus.org/watersheds/mi ... ankton.pdf

BillT

[Lilly Begonia]

Hi Lilly,

Google water flea to get a good look at one.. here is a link to a rough but quick paper on identification...

https://www.msnucleus.org/watersheds/mi ... ankton.pdf

BillT

Okay, I Googled water flea, and those don't look anything like my pic.

https://www.sacsplash.org/sites/main/fi ... phnia2.jpg

[billbillt]

I cropped the photo of yours that I was talking about.. The eyes is what gives me a clue... I may be completely wrong...

[Lilly Begonia]

I cropped the photo of yours that I was talking about.. The eyes is what gives me a clue... I may be completely wrong...

Ummm... no, I was not talking about that image, but the one below it.




BTW, the two images in your post don't look anything alike and I cannot see how one could equate one with the other. Moreover, how could you mistake the image I intended after confidently confirming one so very like it as a Tardigrade egg? Puzzled here, especially since I showed you the image of the organism you cropped out of my submission as an unknown and certainly not looking anything like a water flea as you posted. Where is this going?

[Lilly Begonia]

I cropped the photo of yours that I was talking about.. The eyes is what gives me a clue... I may be completely wrong...

One of these things is not like the other. One of these things does not belong.

[billbillt]

I see a resemblance.. I think for me I am done here...

[Lilly Begonia]

I see a resemblance.. I think for me I am done here...

okay then....

[Pat Thielen]

That does it! As soon as it thaws out I'm going to gather lichens and go hunting for water bears! I've only found one so far but I'm quite certain there are more out there.

Best thread ever!

[Pat Thielen]

Also, I've seen what you've named microschmutz begonea before as well. I don't know what they are; a ciliate of some ilk. I photographed them hanging out with a rotifer sweeping up bacteria and having a very nice feast. If you can catch them feeding you'll find getting photos of them is a whole lot easier. Once they start moving all bets are off!

I'm hoping someone here in the forums will be able to help with the identification of that one. It almost looks like a Plagiopyla of some type but I'm not sure. The notch doesn't seem nearly as pronounced in the images I found online for them. Does anyone else have any ideas or thoughts?

Edit: I did a little more poking around -- See if Colpidium fits the bill.

[MichaelG.]

Other than water bears I see many other things on the slides I can't identify, because I'm a total noob, so I make up names for them until I can find out what they are.

This is a very good place to start:

http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/pond/index.html

MichaelG.

[Lilly Begonia]

Other than water bears I see many other things on the slides I can't identify, because I'm a total noob, so I make up names for them until I can find out what they are.

This is a very good place to start:

http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/pond/index.html

MichaelG.

Thank you Michael. I've bookmarked it

[actinophrys]

Hi Lilly,
The zoomers are Colpoda or some other member of their family, which generally look very similar. They are very common in terrestrial habitats like puddles, wet plant material, and so on. Water in such places tends to be transient, and so while in most ciliates division happens on the go, these types always start forming cysts first (compare e.g. videos here and here). Identifying little round things is tricky, especially from still images, but it seems like this might account for your microsoccerballs, which look to have very colpodid-like food vacuoles.

[Lilly Begonia]

Hi Lilly,
The zoomers are Colpoda or some other member of their family, which generally look very similar. They are very common in terrestrial habitats like puddles, wet plant material, and so on. Water in such places tends to be transient, and so while in most ciliates division happens on the go, these types always start forming cysts first (compare e.g. videos here and here). Identifying little round things is tricky, especially from still images, but it seems like this might account for your microsoccerballs, which look to have very colpodid-like food vacuoles.

Ah! Thank you! Now I don't have to call them microsoccerballs anymore! I've a tremendous amount to learn here, but it's far more entertaining and interesting than TV, and it sure beats sitting home alone listening to my hair grow.

[Lilly Begonia]

Hi Lilly,
The zoomers are Colpoda or some other member of their family, which generally look very similar. They are very common in terrestrial habitats like puddles, wet plant material, and so on. Water in such places tends to be transient, and so while in most ciliates division happens on the go, these types always start forming cysts first (compare e.g. videos here and here). Identifying little round things is tricky, especially from still images, but it seems like this might account for your microsoccerballs, which look to have very colpodid-like food vacuoles.

Aha!!! That YT video was exactly what I've been seeing! So they are Clopoda! I seen thousands of those speedy little buggers every time I mount a slide. Nice to learn what they really are! Thank you so very much! Now I know what to call them.