Is this vorticella?

pwnell · Post by **pwnell** » Tue Feb 25, 2014 4:14 pm

Found it on the inside panes of the glass on my new reef aquarium. Have hundreds if not thousands of them. I guess they feed on copepods? I have a bloom of copepods due to a bloom of diatoms.

20140225-DSLR_IMG_0009.jpg by pwnell, on Flickr
Reef aquarium - vorticella on glass, 20x, DIC

20140225-DSLR_IMG_0015.jpg by pwnell, on Flickr
Reef aquarium - vorticella on glass, 20x/0.45*1.25, DF

20140225-DSLR_IMG_0017.jpg by pwnell, on Flickr
Reef aquarium - vorticella on glass, 40x, PH

20140225-DSLR_IMG_0034.jpg by pwnell, on Flickr
Reef aquarium - vorticella on glass, 20x, DIC

20140225-DSLR_IMG_0039.jpg by pwnell, on Flickr
Reef aquarium - vorticella on glass, 40x, DIC

Protos · Post by **Protos** » Wed Feb 26, 2014 2:28 am

My guess: Carchesium or maybe Zoothamnium
a closer look at stalk, nuclei and ciliary spirals would help.

carlos.uruguay · Post by **carlos.uruguay** » Wed Feb 26, 2014 6:02 am

Marvelous photos of a beautiful organism

Jacek · Post by **Jacek** » Thu Feb 27, 2014 3:10 am

Very nice

RogelioMoreno · Post by **RogelioMoreno** » Thu Feb 27, 2014 5:16 pm

Very nice set, that macrozoids look nice!

Rogelio

arturoag75 · Post by **arturoag75** » Fri Feb 28, 2014 3:25 am

Fantastic...but i think this is a Carchesium colony!
arturo

Bruce Taylor · Post by **Bruce Taylor** » Fri Feb 28, 2014 6:20 am

The myonemes seem to be connected at the branches leading into the main stalks, so probably not Carchesium or Pseudocarchesium.

Lipped zooids, so not Entziella.

That leaves Zoothamnium and Myoschiston (a marine peritrich, epizoic on crustaceans like your copepods). Looking closely at the second-last image, it seems the myoneme continues into the lower stalk, so I would say this is probably Zoothamnium.

The enlarged zooids we see here are typical of Zoothamnium.

Congrats on the fabulous images!

pwnell · Post by **pwnell** » Fri Feb 28, 2014 9:52 am

Thanks for the replies!