I have often observed a cluster of tiny whitish organisms growing in the hydra culture that I maintain at the lab. While the hydra adhere to the bottom of the beaker/dish, these float on the water surface. At first, I thought it was a sort of contamination, but the culture always seemed pretty healthy. Here’s an image taken when I observed it through my Foldscope:

They looked like some kind of mites to me, and when I tried to look for info online, I found an old post on Microcosmos where someone had found an identical looking organism in his/her freshwater aquarium. This was the first time I truly appreciated how awesome the idea of a Foldscope community is, and how we’re all connected through our mini discoveries!

Anyway, I still haven’t figured out what exactly these are, and based on the older post, I’m choosing to call these guys water mites.

Point to be noted, the culture dish is kept in an 18 degrees C incubator, sometimes shared with drosophila stocks of another lab. Could their growth have to do something with that? And what are those long hair-like structures meant for? They seem to keep it afloat, but could it be for something else specifically? And how do they get into the culture in the first place? Waiting to know!