Protist ID please. Tetrahymena?

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Olympusman
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Protist ID please. Tetrahymena?

Post by Olympusman »

Tetrahymena.jpg
Michael Reese Much FRMS EMS Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA

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Re: Protist ID please. Tetrahymena?

Post by Bob-O-Rama »

No idea what that is. Is this a cyst or was it motile?

Olympusman
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Re: Protist ID please. Tetrahymena?

Post by Olympusman »

I can't say if it was motile since I use glutaraldehyde to euthenise the protists in my water drop samples.

Mike
Michael Reese Much FRMS EMS Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA

Bruce Taylor
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Re: Protist ID please. Tetrahymena?

Post by Bruce Taylor »

Some Tetrahymena will feed on small algae, but I've never heard of one that can eat large strands. I don't see any features that would suggest Tetrahymena...I think you can rule that out. The diet is more typical of Frontonia, and it is also very common for cells of that genus to be temporarily deformed by the cyanobacteria they've consumed (as we see here). Unfortunately, we don't see the mouth, so we can't be certain of any identification.
It Came from the Pond (Blog): http://www.itcamefromthepond.com/

Olympusman
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Re: Protist ID please. Tetrahymena?

Post by Olympusman »

I have found an Arcella that ingested Oscillatoria and apparently, the fragment continued to grow and coiled around inside the test, so to find a strand like this inside didn't surprise me.

Mike
Michael Reese Much FRMS EMS Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA

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Re: Protist ID please. Tetrahymena?

Post by Bruce Taylor »

Yes, I've seen that too! :) A ciliate cortex is a pretty fragile membrane-enclosed structure, and wouldn't stay in one piece long enough for a strand of oscillatoria to grow inside it. So, if it's a ciliate of some kind I think the algae would have been inside it already when you fixed the organism with glutaraldehyde. On the other hand, maybe this is a rigid carapace of some kind, e.g. a piece of an arthropod?
It Came from the Pond (Blog): http://www.itcamefromthepond.com/

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