Tardigrade No. 10, with apparent eggs

[Lilly Begonia]

Just found this one, 3 oval masses inside it, I'm thinking eggs.




Note how what's inside the water bear looks so very much like this:

[MichaelG.]

Looks remarkably like eggs to me !!

... as the Wikipedia page says: "A few species have internal fertilization, with mating occurring before the female fully sheds her cuticle. In most cases, the eggs are left inside the shed cuticle to develop"

You seem to have hit very lucky:
Let's hope you get the video recording sorted out in time for the big event.

MichaelG

[JimT]

Lilly, I think eggs as well. Good find and good image captures.

Is the pink cast an artifact of the camera? I expect you can correct that with the software.

Keep them coming.

[Lilly Begonia]

Looks remarkably like eggs to me !!

... as the Wikipedia page says: "A few species have internal fertilization, with mating occurring before the female fully sheds her cuticle. In most cases, the eggs are left inside the shed cuticle to develop"

You seem to have hit very lucky:
Let's hope you get the video recording sorted out in time for the big event.

MichaelG

Thank you Michael! I do indeed seem to have been very lucky. I never expected this. I've learned on Reddit that tardigrades are avidely sought and not so frequently found. One told me the water bear is his "white whale." It may be that they are easier to find here in SW Florida.

Now I spend hours a day looking for more tardigrades. As for the video recording I received my new hardware today and will be installing it after coffee in the morning. I just wish I'd had it when I came upon water bears moving around so energetically. I so regret the poor quality of that video! Today I went back to the tree I found the lichen on and collected more of it, chopped it up fine, put it in another petri dish and added water. Tomorrow I'll be giving that attention.

"In most cases, the eggs are left inside the shed cuticle to develop"

Aha!!! That must be why the form of the tardigrade is so transparent with no internal details visible! It's a shed cuticle just containing the eggs!
This is such a fun journey of learning! Now I have to get video of a tardigrade shedding that cuticle! Also of the eggs hatching!!! And of course, of tardigrades mating! Water bear porn!

[Lilly Begonia]

Lilly, I think eggs as well. Good find and good image captures.

Is the pink cast an artifact of the camera? I expect you can correct that with the software.

Keep them coming.

Hey Jim, I've been wondering about that pink cast myself. I'm sure there's a way to correct it in software, but I'm so new to all of this I've yet to sort that out. I'm really quite amazed I've found what I have this far. Tomorrow I'll be installing hardware to deal with the bottleneck between the USB 3.0 camera and the Mac mini USB 2.0 bus, bypassing it for the Thunderbolt port, which easily exceeds USB 3.0 data transfer speeds. After that I should get video output equal to what I see on my screen, instead of what I've gotten so far.

I want to say that in this last pic the tardigrade is quite transparent with no internal details showing at all, which causes me to wonder if it's not expired as a means of dispensing it's eggs for a 3 to 1 reproduction trade-off. I know very little about this animal and can only theorize at this point.... Oh, nevermind, Michael just explained it.

[mrsonchus]

Great adventure thus far!
I'd agree that the 'shell' is an 'old-one' and is acting perhaps as a temporary level of protection for the eggs? A very interesting and well-earned (by your endeavour) observation - looking forward to your next water-bear instalment/s....

As for the 'pink tinge' - simply a white-balance adjustment easily made post-capture. You'll probably find that a truly corrected white-balance, that will effectively adjust to make the pinkish areas white and the rest accordingly, relative to that of course, will look quite cold to the eye. I very often find this with my images, and simply apply a 'warming-filter' in software at an intensity of about 20-25% with the 'preservation of brightness' option selected as a yes... I'm using Photoshop Elements V 9 - an older version that I've been using for years now. The 'warming' or 'warmify' filters come in three types - all very similar in their effect of removing the harshness of a fully-corrected (for white-balance that is) image....

Keep up the good work, it's really enjoyable to read through your progress and discoveries...

John B.

[Lilly Begonia]

Great adventure thus far!
I'd agree that the 'shell' is an 'old-one' and is acting perhaps as a temporary level of protection for the eggs? A very interesting and well-earned (by your endeavour) observation - looking forward to your next water-bear instalment/s....

As for the 'pink tinge' - simply a white-balance adjustment easily made post-capture. You'll probably find that a truly corrected white-balance, that will effectively adjust to make the pinkish areas white and the rest accordingly, relative to that of course, will look quite cold to the eye. I very often find this with my images, and simply apply a 'warming-filter' in software at an intensity of about 20-25% with the 'preservation of brightness' option selected as a yes... I'm using Photoshop Elements V 9 - an older version that I've been using for years now. The 'warming' or 'warmify' filters come in three types - all very similar in their effect of removing the harshness of a fully-corrected (for white-balance that is) image....

Keep up the good work, it's really enjoyable to read through your progress and discoveries...

John B.

Thank you so much John!

I'm back at it this morning, and you are right about the color balance I got that sorted out, and I'm looking for more tardigrades. I've installed the new hardware this morning to get around the USB 3.0/2.0 bottleneck and so far it's working nicely, but I'll have to wait until I can find moving things to shoot before I know if I've really gotten around the video quality issue.

I've also beeen seeing what look like rotifers, but they have not been moving at all they just lay there doing nothing like my last roommate. There are also nematodes, some of them moving around, and I've found that tardigrades will sometimes eat them. More video I want to get. I've learned that both male and female tardigrades shed their skin like that, but the female leaves her eggs in it while they develop. The shed skin is called an exuvium.

Today I'm going to try and determine just which species of tardigada I have here. I've learned there are a good many of them and I'm hoping I can find other species here.

[Lilly Begonia]

Great adventure thus far!
I'd agree that the 'shell' is an 'old-one' and is acting perhaps as a temporary level of protection for the eggs? A very interesting and well-earned (by your endeavour) observation - looking forward to your next water-bear instalment/s....

As for the 'pink tinge' - simply a white-balance adjustment easily made post-capture. You'll probably find that a truly corrected white-balance, that will effectively adjust to make the pinkish areas white and the rest accordingly, relative to that of course, will look quite cold to the eye. I very often find this with my images, and simply apply a 'warming-filter' in software at an intensity of about 20-25% with the 'preservation of brightness' option selected as a yes... I'm using Photoshop Elements V 9 - an older version that I've been using for years now. The 'warming' or 'warmify' filters come in three types - all very similar in their effect of removing the harshness of a fully-corrected (for white-balance that is) image....

Keep up the good work, it's really enjoyable to read through your progress and discoveries...

John B.

Thank you so much John!

I'm back at it this morning, and you are right about the color balance I got that sorted out, and I'm looking for more tardigrades. I've installed the new hardware this morning to get around the USB 3.0/2.0 bottleneck and so far it's working nicely, but I'll have to wait until I can find moving things to shoot before I know if I've really gotten around the video quality issue.

I've also beeen seeing what look like rotifers, but they have not been moving at all. There are also nematodes, some of them moving around, and I've found that tardigrades will sometimes eat them. More video I want to get. I've learned that both male and female tardigrades shed their skin like that, but the female leaves her eggs in it while they develop. The shed skin is called an exuvium.

Today I'm going to try and determine just which species of tardigada I have here. I've learned there are a good many of them and I'm hoping I can find other species here.

[vasselle]

Bonjour
Belles observation

[McConkey]

Super cool image!! I've never had the pleasure of viewing eggs before! Its crazy to think that one egg looks to take up maybe 1/4 of the total body size! Do you know how long it takes for them to hatch? Hopfully you managed to witness them coming to life! Really cool image! I didn't know anything about the reproductive qualities of these guys until this thread so thanks for bringing to light some awesome information!!

Great to hear about the colour balance being resolved too!! I'm really looking forward to seeing more of your images and the things you find!

[Lilly Begonia]

Super cool image!! I've never had the pleasure of viewing eggs before! Its crazy to think that one egg looks to take up maybe 1/4 of the total body size! Do you know how long it takes for them to hatch? Hopfully you managed to witness them coming to life! Really cool image! I didn't know anything about the reproductive qualities of these guys until this thread so thanks for bringing to light some awesome information!!

Great to hear about the colour balance being resolved too!! I'm really looking forward to seeing more of your images and the things you find!

So very glad you liked that! More images? Sure, here are this morning's tardigrades:

[McConkey]

Another set of great images!! Are you finding these guys in every sample you drop on your slides?? Are you growing them?? I’ve only been so lucky once to find a moss sample that was full of them! Your getting some great details, especially with the fine claws! Have you thought about stacking?? The colour balance is looking much better too!

[Lilly Begonia]

Another set of great images!! Are you finding these guys in every sample you drop on your slides?? Are you growing them?? I’ve only been so lucky once to find a moss sample that was full of them! Your getting some great details, especially with the fine claws! Have you thought about stacking?? The colour balance is looking much better too!

Thank you Karl! No, I don't find them on every slide but I do find enough of them. I wish I could grow them, I hear that can be done, there's a video on YT on how to culture tardigrades, but I didn't watch it. I think I'm just lucky to live where the water bears do. Okay, stacking, that's something I've heard about but I'm so new to this I've not gotten there yet. What does that involve?

The color balance turned out to be an easy fix, I just backed off the hue a little. I'm still wanting to find out what variety of tardigarda I have here, and I learned on YT that the internal structure of the head and mouth parts is key in that, but I'm not sure how to look that up. I'm going to look for more of them today. Will post images

[Lilly Begonia]

Here's the last couple water bears I found:

[mrsonchus]

........................
I'm still wanting to find out what variety of tardigarda I have here, and I learned on YT that the internal structure of the head and mouth parts is key in that, but I'm not sure how to look that up. I'm going to look for more of them today. Will post images

Aha! Now things are developing - the Devil's always in the detail! Really interested to see what you may find out about their taxonomy. You know, it won't be long now until you begin to think things such as ".... It'd be great to have a permanent selection of slides of my finds..." - there's no escape!
I've no idea how they may be preserved and (probably whole rather than 'flattened'?) mounted, but I'd be fascinated to find out!

Keep up the fascinating work Lily - many of us are enjoying these posts very much I'm certain!

John B.

[Lilly Begonia]

Bonjour
Belles observation

Bonjour vasselle, merci d'avoir lu mes posts, j'aime bien ta chanteuse Joyce Jonathan.

[McConkey]

aha i was just joking about growing them! I didn't know that was a thing! I will have to look that up and see what conditions they need to thrive!

I'm sure if you ask them nicely to open wide and stand still you'll be able to get a good look at the mouth for an I.D!

Without overwhelming you too much as you dive into this hobby...stacking takes multiple images you've taken at different focal points of a specimen and combines them into one focused image. There are a number of stacking programs out there, free and paid for that allow you to do this! Photoshop has the ability too if you are already using it.

[Lilly Begonia]

aha i was just joking about growing them! I didn't know that was a thing! I will have to look that up and see what conditions they need to thrive!

I'm sure if you ask them nicely to open wide and stand still you'll be able to get a good look at the mouth for an I.D!

Without overwhelming you too much as you dive into this hobby...stacking takes multiple images you've taken at different focal points of a specimen and combines them into one focused image. There are a number of stacking programs out there, free and paid for that allow you to do this! Photoshop has the ability too if you are already using it.

So, stacking is about taking several shots through the depth of field and combining them. Got it.

[Jonnyvine]

Good findings!

I've been trying to look for these myself.