Spinny ball of death - found in bird bath

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Watermonkey
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Jun 04, 2021 7:19 pm

Spinny ball of death - found in bird bath

#1 Post by Watermonkey » Fri Jun 04, 2021 8:14 pm

Hi - I'm sorry, I made the 'ball of death' bit up but it does like to spin.

There was maybe 5 of these in a sample of water from the garden bird bath. They seem to spend much of their time spinning on the spot then go off for a wonder changing direction, going against the flow and pushing things around.

Sorry for the bad quality as I'm a noob and had to hold my phone to the eye piece as I haven't come up with a better camera solution yet.

Would love to know what it is as it is very different to everything else I have found throughout my 2 week microscopy career.

[youtube]https://youtu.be/eXRImY2K0zs[/youtube]

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lagoonatic
Posts: 74
Joined: Wed May 12, 2021 8:03 pm
Location: Florida

Re: Spinny ball of death - found in bird bath

#2 Post by lagoonatic » Fri Jun 04, 2021 10:08 pm

looks like Dictyosphaerium - they are active spinners - nice catch

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75RR
Posts: 8207
Joined: Sun Oct 12, 2014 2:34 am
Location: Estepona, Spain

Re: Spinny ball of death - found in bird bath

#3 Post by 75RR » Sat Jun 05, 2021 6:30 am

.
This link from the Resources (online, books etc.) section should help with this and future IDs

https://www.microbehunter.com/microscop ... =15&t=1024
Zeiss Standard WL (somewhat fashion challenged) & Wild M8
Olympus E-P2 (Micro Four Thirds Camera)

Watermonkey
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Jun 04, 2021 7:19 pm

Re: Spinny ball of death - found in bird bath

#4 Post by Watermonkey » Sat Jun 05, 2021 9:00 am

@lagoonatic, @75RR - Thank you for the responses.I have a lot to learn :)

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