Chilika lagoon is a unique assemblage of marine, brackish and fresh water ecosystem with estuarine characters. This fragile ecosystem is known for its amazing biodiversity. During sampling from the Nalabana,we observed the live movement of Cladocera under foldscope.

• Here in the video you can observe the heart beat & the intestine movement of the organism. The Cladocera n order of small crustacean commonly called water fleas . It is commonly found in coastal water & can also be found in open ocean system. Marine cladocera are usually herbivorous   filter-feeders that sieve phytoplankton from the water using setae on the pereiopods.
• However, they also graze on bacteria & microzooplankton. They are mostly 0.2-0.6mm long. The body is not obviously segmented and bears a folded carapace which covers the thorax and abdomen . The head is angled downwards, and may be separated from the rest of the body by a “cervical sinus” or notch. It bears a single black compound eye, located on the animal’s midline. The head also bears two pairs of antennae – the first antennae are small, unsegmented appendages, while the second antennae are large, segmented, and branched, with powerful muscles.