pond animal splitting its body

[samt]

Hi!

I observe several examples of this thing swimming and twisting smoothly in samples of pond water. I'm still new in identification and am learning to use my books. I don't see ciliates nor flagella, that,s all I can say.

More funny, I saw one splitting, I believe on purpose.



Could you help me to understand what I saw?

Thanks!

Sam

[Dennis]

I don't know. I think the biggest thing going on is that it is just stuck in all that plant material.
-Dennis

[Bruce Taylor]

These ciliates are in a confined space, and the cells are very compressed (likely from coverslip pressure). In confined spaces, ciliates often become quite flexible, which makes it possible for the cell to wriggle through very tight spaces. In this case, though, the membranes fail, and one cell is torn apart. Ciliates can sometimes recover from damage of this kind, provided the macronucleus (which contains the DNA that governs everyday cell functions) is intact. Often, you will see pieces of a damaged cell still moving after a cell has been split. However, this does not necessarily mean that the cell fragments will regenerate.

[Dennis]

I saw an Amoeba before having the tail end stuck on some plant material.
It pulled and pulled and tried to loose itself but ended up that part breaking off it.
-Dennis

[samt]

Thanks a lot for the explanation! Oops. So it broke a part to free itself... sad.

You also say this would be a ciliate, so I will try to investigate this vast family with more details. Thanks!