Marine water life: rotifers, ciliates, diatoms and bacteria

Jun 04, 2016 • 5:52 PM UTC

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Microorganisms

Saad Bhamla

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I took another drop of water from the sea water table. This almost feels like a game. Every time I pull out a drop of water and peer into the foldscope I observe new tumbling motions, new shapes and colors.
I believe these are rotifers (or ciliates). @laks and @manup, can you confirm? I distinctly remember these creatures with legs from one of laks’s old videos describing them as the dinosaurs of the microbial world. This is my first sighting of a rotifer.

Here’s another different type. I’m curious how others identify rotifers? Is there any guide or book someone can share to ID them? I suspect this is a ciliate and not a rotifer due to the missing legs. But please correct me.

I came across this strange organism that spins round and round…

This is a diatom I think- this is the first time I’m seeing diatoms, so I’m still not sure if I’m identifying correctly. I came to the conclusion based on taking a video and it didn’t move at all. Makes me wonder if and how diatoms get from one place to another??

This I mistook for a fibre- but a video exposed it as a slow moving worm.

And finally, I came across this wonderful site which reminded me of a train station-there is so much hustling and bustling. I cannot even begin to describe all the creatures that zoom by. So much activity. So much intensity of life.

Here’s another long video. See if you can identify any of the swimming and zooming rockets.

I believe EO Wilson would hold up a bowl of water and proclaim that there is more diversity of life in this than in the entire ocean. I’m beginning to see what he was talking about.
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