Dileptid Hunting and Eating

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micro
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Dileptid Hunting and Eating

#1 Post by micro » Mon Mar 16, 2020 5:15 am


You can see that creature disintegrate from coming in contact with the dileptid's toxin

Bruce Taylor
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Re: Dileptid Hunting and Eating

#2 Post by Bruce Taylor » Mon Mar 16, 2020 12:25 pm

Very cool! I love watching ciliate predators.

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RobBerdan
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Re: Dileptid Hunting and Eating

#3 Post by RobBerdan » Tue Mar 17, 2020 4:06 am

Nice movie Bruce - wouldn't it be nice to be able to just zoom in on the organism rather that have to change objectives.
The Darkfield is nice and the ciliates appears to glow.
Cheers
RB

Bruce Taylor
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Re: Dileptid Hunting and Eating

#4 Post by Bruce Taylor » Tue Mar 17, 2020 12:55 pm

RobBerdan wrote:
Tue Mar 17, 2020 4:06 am
Nice movie Bruce - wouldn't it be nice to be able to just zoom in on the organism rather that have to change objectives.
The Darkfield is nice and the ciliates appears to glow.
Cheers
RB
Yes, the colours are lovely (note that it's not my video, though!).

WhyMe
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Re: Dileptid Hunting and Eating

#5 Post by WhyMe » Wed Mar 18, 2020 11:30 am

Very nice!

mintakax
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Re: Dileptid Hunting and Eating

#6 Post by mintakax » Tue Mar 24, 2020 7:54 pm

Nice, very nice ! Observing and filming a dileptid is high on my list. Of the many hundreds of samples I have examined I have yet to see one.

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KD Arvidsson
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Re: Dileptid Hunting and Eating

#7 Post by KD Arvidsson » Tue Mar 24, 2020 9:02 pm

Beautiful micro!! //KD
Microscope Nikon Labophot 2
Panasonic GH4 and HY-2307 Camera+Euromex adapter.
Westcoast of Sweden.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjsgbq ... dyl2x0Atpw

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micro
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Re: Dileptid Hunting and Eating

#8 Post by micro » Wed Mar 25, 2020 5:40 am

mintakax wrote:
Tue Mar 24, 2020 7:54 pm
Nice, very nice ! Observing and filming a dileptid is high on my list. Of the many hundreds of samples I have examined I have yet to see one.
I found a bunch of them living in my jar of pond water and figured I'd have plenty more to observe later but now I haven't been able to find any and I'm thinking I should have tried to get more footage while I had the chance... There's probably still tons of them in the jar but it's still like finding a needle in a hay stack I guess.

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75RR
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Re: Dileptid Hunting and Eating

#9 Post by 75RR » Wed Mar 25, 2020 6:08 am

Nice catch and video! Truly a world with real live monsters if you are a little guy.
There's probably still tons of them in the jar but it's still like finding a needle in a hay stack I guess.
I liken it to a Lucky Dip, the percentage sampled by a pipette is small indeed.
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mintakax
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Re: Dileptid Hunting and Eating

#10 Post by mintakax » Wed Mar 25, 2020 3:37 pm

micro wrote:
Wed Mar 25, 2020 5:40 am
mintakax wrote:
Tue Mar 24, 2020 7:54 pm
Nice, very nice ! Observing and filming a dileptid is high on my list. Of the many hundreds of samples I have examined I have yet to see one.
I found a bunch of them living in my jar of pond water and figured I'd have plenty more to observe later but now I haven't been able to find any and I'm thinking I should have tried to get more footage while I had the chance... There's probably still tons of them in the jar but it's still like finding a needle in a hay stack I guess.
Concentrations of organisms seem to change very regularly in my pond aquarium. Several months ago I was seeing two or three Mesodinium (fascinating little things) in every sample, yet I have not seen even one in a couple of weeks. Several months ago I rarely saw a Loxodes, now I see several in each sample. I have not added any new actual pond creatures in many months. I assume that a regular pond is in some sort of steady state as far as concentrations of organisms for different climate regions of the pond. I wonder if my aquarium will reach a steady state or keep changing ? Either way its fascinating !

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Re: Dileptid Hunting and Eating

#11 Post by micro » Wed Mar 25, 2020 6:54 pm

mintakax wrote:
Wed Mar 25, 2020 3:37 pm
micro wrote:
Wed Mar 25, 2020 5:40 am
mintakax wrote:
Tue Mar 24, 2020 7:54 pm
Nice, very nice ! Observing and filming a dileptid is high on my list. Of the many hundreds of samples I have examined I have yet to see one.
I found a bunch of them living in my jar of pond water and figured I'd have plenty more to observe later but now I haven't been able to find any and I'm thinking I should have tried to get more footage while I had the chance... There's probably still tons of them in the jar but it's still like finding a needle in a hay stack I guess.
Concentrations of organisms seem to change very regularly in my pond aquarium. Several months ago I was seeing two or three Mesodinium (fascinating little things) in every sample, yet I have not seen even one in a couple of weeks. Several months ago I rarely saw a Loxodes, now I see several in each sample. I have not added any new actual pond creatures in many months. I assume that a regular pond is in some sort of steady state as far as concentrations of organisms for different climate regions of the pond. I wonder if my aquarium will reach a steady state or keep changing ? Either way its fascinating !
In my pond water jars I'm not sure if the concentrations change or not but seems like the organisms swim around in packs like schools of fish. The first time I opened one of the jars there were hundreds to thousands of these ciliaties or whatever in the sample and I figured the entire jar must have been filled with them but then a week or so later I took more samples and there were none or close to none of them in the samples. Idk if they were swimming together like a school of fish or if the jar really was filled with them and they died off from me opening the jar and disturbing the ecosphere. But either way I usually never find one type of organism in a sample there are almost always a few in the same sample which makes me wonder if they stay together in packs or they all get drawn to the same area for whatever reason.

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Re: Dileptid Hunting and Eating

#12 Post by Bruce Taylor » Wed Mar 25, 2020 7:18 pm

Dileptids readily form cysts, when environmental conditions won't support vegetative growth. If you pick healthy cells out with a micropipette and place them in a small quantity of water with no food, you can sometimes induce them to encyst. A depression slide works well, or a small petri dish.

At any given time, much of a pond's diversity is likely to be dormant. The "seed bank" of a mature pond can be vast, and a truly astonishing variety of organisms lie waiting to emerge when conditions are right. When the hot summer sun produces a bloom of cyanobacteria, nassulids will soon follow. When nutrient load is high, and oxygen somewhat depleted, you'll suddenly see plenty of anaerobes and bacterivores...Spirostomum teres, metopids, colpidiids, etc. Certain weed species reliably bloom in indoor infusions...Tetmememena, Dexiotricha, Paramecium. The last doesn't form cysts but is versatile enough to live in almost any kind of water, in small numbers, becoming a dominant presence when prey bacteria are abundant. And then, when the Paramecia bloom, Didinium eventually awaken from their cysts and go on a murderous spree. :D For me, much of the fun in microscopy comes from observing the interplay between organisms in an environment that is constantly changing.

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Re: Dileptid Hunting and Eating

#13 Post by mintakax » Wed Mar 25, 2020 10:04 pm

Thanks for the info Bruce ! I know many of us are very grateful for your presence here on the forum :D

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Re: Dileptid Hunting and Eating

#14 Post by micro » Wed Mar 25, 2020 10:34 pm

Bruce Taylor wrote:
Wed Mar 25, 2020 7:18 pm
Dileptids readily form cysts, when environmental conditions won't support vegetative growth. If you pick healthy cells out with a micropipette and place them in a small quantity of water with no food, you can sometimes induce them to encyst. A depression slide works well, or a small petri dish.

At any given time, much of a pond's diversity is likely to be dormant. The "seed bank" of a mature pond can be vast, and a truly astonishing variety of organisms lie waiting to emerge when conditions are right. When the hot summer sun produces a bloom of cyanobacteria, nassulids will soon follow. When nutrient load is high, and oxygen somewhat depleted, you'll suddenly see plenty of anaerobes and bacterivores...Spirostomum teres, metopids, colpidiids, etc. Certain weed species reliably bloom in indoor infusions...Tetmememena, Dexiotricha, Paramecium. The last doesn't form cysts but is versatile enough to live in almost any kind of water, in small numbers, becoming a dominant presence when prey bacteria are abundant. And then, when the Paramecia bloom, Didinium eventually awaken from their cysts and go on a murderous spree. :D For me, much of the fun in microscopy comes from observing the interplay between organisms in an environment that is constantly changing.
I figured this was the case with my ecospheres. When I first collected the water for my jars I also took some samples that were a little lacking in organisms. But after I had the ecospheres for a few months they appear to have exploded with at least 10x the amount of microorganisms. It must be because the temperature in my house is warm.

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Re: Dileptid Hunting and Eating

#15 Post by Bruce Taylor » Thu Mar 26, 2020 1:58 pm

Yup, changes in temperatures can certainly promote blooms of particular organisms. But there are many things at play in your tanks...light levels, oxygen, water column mixing/stagnation, sulfur uptake, saprobity (amount of the organic matter in the tank that is decomposing), pH (decomposition tends to acidify the water), accumulation of biological waste products, availability of specific minerals, etc. Every little change is beneficial to certain groups of organisms and discouraging to others. :)

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Re: Dileptid Hunting and Eating

#16 Post by mintakax » Thu Mar 26, 2020 2:42 pm

Bruce, I am wondering how the amoeba population is linked to the population of other protists ? Every sample I take from my pond aquarium now has hundreds of yellow diatoms of all sizes as well as dozens (if not hundreds) of naked and testate amoebas, many of which have ingested diatoms. Oddly, with all the amoeba activity, I rarely if ever, observe them capturing prey.
What parameters are conducive to amoeba and diatom population explosions ?

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Re: Dileptid Hunting and Eating

#17 Post by Bruce Taylor » Thu Mar 26, 2020 7:36 pm

mintakax wrote:
Thu Mar 26, 2020 2:42 pm
Bruce, I am wondering how the amoeba population is linked to the population of other protists...What parameters are conducive to amoeba and diatom population explosions ?
I'm not sure that a thousand pages would be enough to answer that question. It might require a small library. ;) Diatoms are a large and diverse group, as you know...and "amoebae" are not really a group at all.:D Certain diatoms are used by ecologists as indicator species to determine water conditions, but different species occupy different environmental niches. There are particular diatoms that bloom in low nutrient water, while some species enjoy a high nutrient load. There are benthic (bottom dwelling) diatoms, planktonic (free floating) diatoms, and periphytic diatoms (attached to a substrate).

"Amoebae" are even more diverse, since organisms with amoeboid body plans are in every branch of the eukaryote family tree (in fact, many so-called "testate amoebae" are less closely related to each other than they are to you and me). Even if we confine the discussion to members of the supergroup Amoebozoa...well, an amoebozoan that flourishes in the upper strata of sunlit bog lakes (such as Mayorella viridis or Arcella artocrea) will not be at all happy in the dark, oxygen-free murk that supports Pelomyxa palustris. To say nothing of endoparasites, or critters that colonize bromeliad plants, or those cunning amoebae (like Difflugia bacillariarum) that build their shells entirely out of diatoms. :D

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Re: Dileptid Hunting and Eating

#18 Post by mintakax » Fri Mar 27, 2020 3:19 pm

Thanks Bruce-- I was actually kind of expecting an answer like this ! There is a famous Zen Buddhist saying: " Not knowing is most intimate " :)

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