Lembadion

[Charles Krebs]

I've got more "attractive" images of this species, but this is the best I've gotten of one actively feeding showing the very large ciliated buccal cavity on the ventral side.

The second image is sort of busy, but it has a couple of good things going for it. If you look at the lower center you can see one specimen on it's side, and another from an end view. This allows you to get a pretty good feel for the scoop-like configuration of the huge buccal area. You can also see the long trailing caudal cilia pretty clearly on two of the individuals.


Olympus BHS. Olympus 60/1.40 S Plan Apo. Olympus 1.67X NFK. Canon 50D. DIC with electronic flash.



Olympus BHS. Olympus 20/0.80 D Plan Apo UV. Olympus 1.67X NFK. Canon 50D. DIC with electronic flash.

[Mitch640]

I don't believe I have seen any of these before. But seeing DIC images from so many sources here in the forum, I seem to be able to take the pancake view of DIC and in my minds eye, sort of flesh it out to what it looks like when swimming around.

I have seen everything on your site, I think, but I don't recall anything about how you collect or keep your specimens. Do you have an aquarium or something similar? I think this is my next step, as everything in jars dies pretty quickly and it's going to be hard to collect things when the river is under 3 feet of ice. LOL

[Charles Krebs]

Mitch,

It varies. I generally like to look at freshly collected samples, but obviously this time of year that can be less productive in some locales. I have on occasion kept a small aquarium going, but generally it's a few large jars or a couple of those flat, square inexpensive food storage containers holding samples. Keep a good amount of surface area. I keep them on a window sill that gets good light but not direct sun (not that that's a huge problem this time of year where I live. ). Keep the water level up with distilled water or bottled "spring" water that has no added ingredients. (If you need to use tap water let it sit out a day or two first).

Samples taken in winter (even from under ice) will contain some active subjects. And it's very common that after sitting on the window sill for a few days they come to life with all sorts of new critters. Be sure to collect a bit of bottom "mud" and some organic material (old grasses, leaves and such). Be sure to collect some of the debris that is floating on the surface. You can even spur things on by dropping in a few rice grains (or other grains... I've even tried some dog biscuit crumbs and bit of chocolate chip cookies ... just about anything that will provide a nutritional source to promote the growth of the bacteria which is the base food source for these samples).

Some people really like to carefully start and maintain protozoan "cultures", and there's a good amount of information on the internet about doing so. Also don't forget to look over the offerings at places like Carolina Biological Supply, and Wards Natural Science (search "protozoa" on their sites).

[Mitch640]

It's too late here for anything from the river. Everything is frozen, as is the ground. I think I can get to some grass under the snow and maybe start an infusion. But I want to keep it alive for longer than what my little jars have been doing. Surface area is probably the key here. Luckily I have well water, it's hard, but has no chemicals.

[NikonUser]

Mitch: I'm doing almost exactly as Charles outlined. A flat food container with lots of bottom junk and odd bits of weed.
Rotting tree leaves and some old TetraMin tropical fish food to keep everybody well fed. Kept in a sub-zero garage with 25watt lamp constantly on to keep if from freezing. Sample was collected on 17 October and still lots of life in it.

Charles: almost unbelievable imagery; fantastic.

[Charles Krebs]

Mitch,

It's too late here for anything from the river. Everything is frozen, as is the ground

I've heard good things about this (but never tried it):
http://www.carolina.com/product/carolin ... ery+mix.do

Could be a good way to get started. If you were to get this and work with new infusions from time to time, you could probably have a wealth of subject matter over the winter.

[Mitch640]

I was looking at something similar the other day, just came across it. They were selling compost tea. There appears to be a whole cottage industry for them. I think what I am going to do first though, since I live in the land of cows, is to just go pick me up a dried cow flap and crumble it up into a container and add some well water.

I believe I might also get some samples of sludge from the sewage treatment plant. I would have already done this, but I wanted to make sure I had a working microscope before going to a lot of trouble. Looks like that question is answered.

[Ecki]

Charles,

I saw those before but I have no ID. The cavity is indeed huge. In the last picture one can be seen from the anterior or posterior side. Compared to the entire ciliate the cavity appears as large as the cargo bay of the Space Shuttle!

Edit: just saw you identified them as Lembadion.

Mitch,

you can buy for 5$ a nice bootle of cyst granule: http://www.dohse-aquaristik.com/EN/prod ... ogen-20-ml
It is used to breed fish babies. If you can't buy this for whatever reason google "infusoria fish breeding" and you get 1000 recipes to chose from. Afterall, the name infusoria wasn't given to these without a reason

Regards
Eckhard

[Mitch640]

Thanks for that link Ecki. I have bookmarked it. Looks like just the thing for my new specimen aquarium.

http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... hp?t=11681