Bryozoa + pictures added

[Starshade]

I know these guys seldom "visit" photomacrography pages so I decided to fix it:





I used condenser not designed for 5x lens, wrong annulus, and wrong DIC slider as I don't have what I need. And these are old pictures again. Such big colony is very hard to photograph and stacking is impossible.

[Starshade]

Decided to add one more picture as I realized that the forum supports larger pictures than my blog. Apologies to moderators for double post.

[Pau]

Nice!, the tentacles are beautifuly rendered.

[Mitch640]

Very beautiful animals and great shots of them. Are they salt water? Where did you find them?

[Starshade]

Thank you

Mitch: it's a colony of freshwater Cristatella mucedo. Found it in the nearest pond, they are super abundant, I just somehow hadn't seen them as the colonies look like... some unattractive jelly-looking goo.

[Mitch640]

Well, I have seen clear or almost clear gooey jelly things before. I guess I will have to take a closer look. LOL

[Greg Gavelis]

Cristatella is amazing! it's one of the only mobile colonial animals (besides siphonophores and some salps), where pray tell did you get your hands on them?

[Starshade]

Yes it is an amazing "organism", although I think I should say "super-organism" as they have differentiated individuals that have different morphology and play different roles in the colony. Like various specialized cells in one organism. And the colonies do look like some kind of worms with flat bottom, despite having jelly-like body.

I found them near Moscow, not very close to you=)

Wish I had some decent macro lenses + flashes because 5x is too much. I tried an inverted 16mm lens attached with duct tape, but without flash and a background it was pointless, although those who are still unsure how the colonies look like can get an impression:

[RogelioMoreno]

Nice, I would like to find that specimen.

Rogelio