Brown Hydra & unfortunate Ciliate

[Chris Dee]

Brown Hydra flexing. Wrong time and place for the Ciliate.
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Microscope:
Vickers M17 trinocular
Objectives:
Vickers Microplan 4x
Vickers Microplan 10x
Zeiss neofluar 16x
Zeiss Jena APO 25x

[janvangastel]

Beautifull and very interesting video.

[hans]

Nice video. Sort of looks like there are bulges of clear fluid swelling around the ciliate in the bright field shot 2:45 to 3:45. Any idea what that is? Related to the damage from the hydra?

[Wes]

Nice, sharp video and interesting documentation. Does hydra even eat protists?

[Chris Dee]

Nice video. Sort of looks like there are bulges of clear fluid swelling around the ciliate in the bright field shot 2:45 to 3:45. Any idea what that is? Related to the damage from the hydra?

Thanks hans. I think this is cytoplasm leakage caused by the ciliate triggering one or more of the hydra's nematocysts.

Nice, sharp video and interesting documentation. Does hydra even eat protists?

Cheers Wes. I've never seen one consumed but this crushing behaviour I've observed several times. As above I suspect its a reaction to a nematocyst being triggered, but I'm no expert on the subject.

[Chris Dee]

Thanks for the encouragement janvangastel

[DonSchaeffer]

How are they eaten? Where is the "mouth?"

[Chris Dee]

How are they eaten? Where is the "mouth?"

Hydra are essentially a hollow tube (blind gut), the feeding entrance is in the middle of the tentacle cluster. They can engulf large prey in short order. Here is a good video (not mine) of one in action: https://youtu.be/SS_HYY97ehw