Am I killing my Tardigrades?

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Peepaw
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Apr 30, 2021 6:42 pm
Location: Georgia

Am I killing my Tardigrades?

#1 Post by Peepaw » Tue Jun 01, 2021 6:41 pm

I am new at this so please bear with me.

The other day I decided to see if I could come up with Tardigrades from the dry moss on my sidewalk.
I peeled up a few square inches of it and put it in a small jar.
I then added bottled water and submerged the dry moss. Six hours later I took a sample for viewing.
I noticed loads of Rotifers and a good bit of Nematodes. No Tardigrades.

I gave my moss another 20 or so hours and tried again. This time I found about 6 Tardigrades, all dead or at least seemed to be.
Also almost all the Nematodes were dead and the majority ot the Rotifers were also dead.

Well I thought maybe they would rather have rain water. I took another chunk of moss and covered it in rain water.
I gave this about 24 hours or so. My first sample I found a live Tardigrade. I was a happy guy for a moment.
Then as I scanned around on the slide I found three more Tardigrades, all dead.

Anybody know what it is that I am doing wrong?
Should I just moisten the moss instead of submerging it?

Any advice you can give would be most helpful.

Thanks Scott

BramHuntingNematodes
Posts: 1538
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2020 1:29 am
Location: Georgia, USA

Re: Am I killing my Tardigrades?

#2 Post by BramHuntingNematodes » Tue Jun 01, 2021 8:01 pm

Distilled or rainwater is a good idea. Here's something to try: wait longer. I can come back after three or four weeks to a petri dish of bird bath water and rotifers will still be marching around in force. Water bears don't move very fast even when most active and hibernation is the secret to their durability.
1942 Bausch and Lomb Series T Dynoptic, Custom Illumination

pippo1234
Posts: 81
Joined: Thu Dec 24, 2020 8:21 am

Re: Am I killing my Tardigrades?

#3 Post by pippo1234 » Wed Jun 02, 2021 3:37 pm

Can you really tell if a tardigrade is dead rather than in cryptobiosis?

BramHuntingNematodes
Posts: 1538
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2020 1:29 am
Location: Georgia, USA

Re: Am I killing my Tardigrades?

#4 Post by BramHuntingNematodes » Wed Jun 02, 2021 3:49 pm

I mean I usually can tell by seeing if it is full of things eating its insides
1942 Bausch and Lomb Series T Dynoptic, Custom Illumination

Peepaw
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Apr 30, 2021 6:42 pm
Location: Georgia

Re: Am I killing my Tardigrades?

#5 Post by Peepaw » Wed Jun 02, 2021 7:36 pm

pippo1234 wrote:
Wed Jun 02, 2021 3:37 pm
Can you really tell if a tardigrade is dead rather than in cryptobiosis?
Good question.

I am assuming they are dead because they are not moving but I could be wrong for sure.

What I know for sure is a lot of other stuff seems to die after about 24 hours.
Most Rotifers in my slide look dead after about 24 hours in water, so do the Nematodes.

So far I have seen 9 Tardigrades in my moss sample. Only one was moving.
Just trying to figure out if I am doing something wrong.

I did find my first Heliozoa of some sort this morning. That made my day.

Scott

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