filamented bacterium?

[nanometer]

This was at the bottom of a very rank outside water source. It is 30um long x 1um width. It moved about 3 times its body length/sec. 'Head' first and straight as an arrow with no gyrating or vibrating and moving perpendicular to a current under the slide. 40x dic. Any clues appreciated.

[Ken Ramos]

I had scraped off a pretty good sample of green algae from the side of my sheet metal garden shed and placed it in an old acrylic aquarium to see what might would develop from it. I was pleasantly surprised with an over abundance of filamentous algae and various forms of cyanobacteria and protists but what intrigued me the most was a vast number of organisms of which one you have posted here. I began my Google search but found nothing quite similar to them , leaving me as usual, scratching my head and anticipating when I might would be informed of what they are. Excellent photograph, very nice! I would also assume them to be some form of bacteria judging by the way they moved.

[nanometer]

Thanks for looking Ken. I put a 10-gal aquarium outside about 3 months ago. This came from that. It's quite anaerobic currently as the mosquito larvae quickly took over. My solution was to put a glass top on it thus trapping them as they hatched and preventing new eggs from going in. I must have killed hundreds of them as they flew between the water and glass surfaces with nowhere to go. I put veggie cuttings into it, and it is now black and rank! (esp since it's been getting 100-F outside!). I too searched for quite a while, but came up blank on this one except a paper alluded to bacteria filamenting and elongating with increasingly hostile environment.

The bottom of the tank is filled with metopus.