I got bored today after doing a water change and decided to see what kinda of uglies are living in my substrate. I got an eye droper and took a water sample about an inch deep, I happened to get a pice of broken down fish poop. Here is a couple things I saw.
This is a Vorticella. It is a very interesting, stalked ciliate with an inverted bell shape. The stalk contains a contractile fibril called a myoneme. When stimulated, it shortens, causing the stalk to coil like a spring. As in this video.
Vorticella 5mb
Oligochaete worms have bristles which are used to grip when creeping between water plants or when on the bottom of a pond. Their internal organs are clearly visible. Their stomach always give a nice glimpse of their prey (in this case fish poo).
Oligochaete worms 13mb
I found allot of other things in my small sample, Protozoa, Perimecium ect. This is all very interesting to me in that I used to study pond water samples that had these exact same organisims... How did they get into my tank? My theory is the plants I bought from my LFS. Not only do you have your fish, plants and bacteria in your tank... you have a whole community of healthy microbes!
I will post more of what I find if anything interesting comes up.
This is a Vorticella. It is a very interesting, stalked ciliate with an inverted bell shape. The stalk contains a contractile fibril called a myoneme. When stimulated, it shortens, causing the stalk to coil like a spring. As in this video.
Vorticella 5mb
Oligochaete worms have bristles which are used to grip when creeping between water plants or when on the bottom of a pond. Their internal organs are clearly visible. Their stomach always give a nice glimpse of their prey (in this case fish poo).
Oligochaete worms 13mb
I found allot of other things in my small sample, Protozoa, Perimecium ect. This is all very interesting to me in that I used to study pond water samples that had these exact same organisims... How did they get into my tank? My theory is the plants I bought from my LFS. Not only do you have your fish, plants and bacteria in your tank... you have a whole community of healthy microbes!
I will post more of what I find if anything interesting comes up.
