My first day- pond critter question

Equinox · Post by **Equinox** » Fri Mar 22, 2013 7:04 pm

The other day I was looking at some pond water, and I noticed some little things moving in it. So I went and found a microscope so I could see exactly what they were. One looked like a water flea. I tried to find an ID for this one online. I believe it is a "copepod cyclops".

When I first saw it I thought it was green. As I increased the magnification I saw that it was not green, but covered in these green things. They were able to move freely, and were clustering around the cyclops.

Does anybody know what the little green things are? And why they were atracted to the cyclops?

I struggled to take these pictures with my ipod. I'm also interested in micrography. I never realized how much goes on in such a small scale.

Charles Krebs · Post by **Charles Krebs** » Fri Mar 22, 2013 10:36 pm

Greetings,

Copepods (and other small pond creatures) often have a variety of even smaller critters that latch onto them, sometimes in great numbers. Many do no harm to the copepod... they are just there for the "ride"

The small green ones you saw are Euglenoids (or euglena).

A couple of years ago I posted a shot of a similar copepod with an inordinately large number of these "hangers-on".

http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... hp?t=12715

Equinox · Post by **Equinox** » Mon Apr 01, 2013 9:40 am

Thanks for answering my questions about the pond life! it was very helpful

.
I'm looking forward to finding more pond creatures! thank you again for the quick reply. sorry that i could not respond nearly as fast

Bruce Taylor · Post by **Bruce Taylor** » Sun Apr 07, 2013 7:52 pm

Welcome to the pond.

These might be Colacium (a fairly common epibiontic Euglenoid).