It's Nassula Season

discomorphella · Post by **discomorphella** » Fri Mar 23, 2012 11:51 pm

I wish I knew what aspects of this particular pond are so conducive to growing Nassulae. If I figure it out I will try to culture them. This was another specimen I grabbed out of a dish of water and bottom debris using a stereoscope and a Pasteur pipet. It has a much better diet than the previous specimen. I've posted a series of photographs as the slide dries out. At first the animals are pretty rounded, then, as the slide dries out they get progressively flattened, culminating in a final detail shot of the nasse, WEV and nucleus. Even with vigorous use of the correction collar and DIC, the more "natural" the appearance (more water under the coverglass) the more difficult it is to get high-resolution shots of the internal structures. Shortly after the last shot the coverslip exceeded the design load of the Nassula and it imploded.
BX-60 with DIC (U-DICT upper prism), 40/0.85 objective, UCA mag changer, Leitz Variozoom eyepiece and 0.32X projection lens relaying to a D300. SB-800 flash used throughout, in remote mode. Images "minimally processed" using Nikon ViewNX or similar, and ImageJ for scale bars and background correction.

David

arturoag75 · Post by **arturoag75** » Sat Mar 24, 2012 1:26 am

Impressive shots and color inside

arturo

Wim van Egmond · Post by **Wim van Egmond** » Sat Mar 24, 2012 3:45 am

Very nice shots of one of my favourite organisms.

Wim

RogelioMoreno · Post by **RogelioMoreno** » Sat Mar 24, 2012 5:10 am

Very nice set, the colors of the first one are amazing.

Rogelio

discomorphella · Post by **discomorphella** » Sat Mar 24, 2012 6:11 am

Thanks Rogelio, Wim and Arturo,

Now if only I can figure out how to grow these beasts. I am hoping I find a few more in the pond, as I really want to try silver impregnation, and some 100X oil immersion shots. The nasse really is a fascinating organelle.

David

Wim van Egmond · Post by **Wim van Egmond** » Sat Mar 24, 2012 7:02 am

They feed on cyanobacteria so I think that would be the best way. Perhaps if you can find Oscillatoria where you found the Nassulas?

Good luck. I hope to find some too these days. I have a whole series but I like to make better pictures of the feeding.

Wim

Bruce Taylor · Post by **Bruce Taylor** » Sat Mar 24, 2012 7:04 am

discomorphella wrote:Thanks Rogelio, Wim and Arturo,

Now if only I can figure out how to grow these beasts. I am hoping I find a few more in the pond, as I really want to try silver impregnation, and some 100X oil immersion shots. The nasse really is a fascinating organelle.

David

Great images.

I would imagine that success in culturing Nassula will depend on your ability to grow their favorite brands of cyanobacteria.

In my ponds, they bloom when the blue green algae is abundant, and encyst promptly when it is scarce.

Charles Krebs · Post by **Charles Krebs** » Sat Mar 24, 2012 7:32 pm

David,

Wonderful set of images. Sort of the peacock of the ciliates!

Marek Mis · Post by **Marek Mis** » Sun Mar 25, 2012 3:28 am

David,

Simply beautiful ! That's all what I can say.

Marek

discomorphella · Post by **discomorphella** » Sun Mar 25, 2012 10:34 am

Thanks Wim, Charlie, Bruce and Marek,

What I really like about Nassula, besides the really interesting internal structures, is that fact that they can convert relatively boring Cyanobacteria into very colorful animals that are so enjoyable to observe. I think that is why I want to culture Nassula. I often find cyanobacteria in pond samples, but most species I find are not that interesting, nor colorful. If I can find a way to culture them, then the next time I collect a sample that is dominated by cyanobacteria, perhaps I can seed it with Nassula and convert it into a very interesting sample.

David