Pond life i havent dated......

[paris]

i had to resist the temptation to name this thread 'IT CAME FROM URANUS'

although i used to work with a LEICA scope-it was in a clean room so i never could get any good pics-besides it was set up to look at microchips and not biological things...so here are some photos i got from work of the organisms that were in the pond water i fed to my axolotl hatchlings-which all subsequently got fungus and sores about the same time and died. i thought at first i had perhaps fed them cyclops-since the critters in there had only 1 eye and i couldnt see them well-but i got some out, fixed them with alcohol and looked at them and they are definitely daphnia-so i really dont know what went wrong.
here is a pic with black back light of your basic daphnia-complete with 2 eggs

i am under the impression that daphnia are filter feeders-and i can see a filter like (bleen like)structure under the microscope here

here is a pic of an egg and one of the 'filters' disembodied

here is a shot of a cyclops-this one is either a male or a non pregnant female

and here is an aquatic tick -these are fairly large and easy to identify-i am unsure if they are a threat to my larvae so i dont put them in-i have drawn an arrow to what i believe to be the mouth parts

and finally a pic of an unknown-in some ways these resemble clams-and they have filtering 'hands' coming out- i havent done much research to find out what they are

 

[josh]

Paris the last unknown pic looks exactly like an ostracod on pg.20 of Willy Jocher's book. They are commonly caught when netting dahpnia.

 

[sharon]

UGH, I think I am going to "RE - think" the diverse feeding option and just let go of the idea of finding & cultivating those creatures!!

Awesome pics!

 

[alan]

Paris, your mystery date is an ostracod:
http://www.google.com/search?q=ostracod

 

[joeri]

I've been wondering for some time now;
what is bad about cyclops?

I'm sure there are some in my larvae tank, but I haven't noticed any problems (yet).

Sorry to hear about your loss Paris.

 

[joeri]

Something else you don't want to find in your newts tank.
I bought daphnia and look what I found in the same little bag; a dragonfly, hardly a larva anymore.

btw: in Dutch the word for dragonfly seems so much more innocent and poetic: "libel". I believe the English word is more appropriate to us newt keepers

 

[caleb]

Joeri-

Cyclops are predatory, and fishkeepers have accused them of attacking very young fish fry. It's possible that they could attack very young newt larvae.

I have used them as food for newt larvae in the past without any problems- they are useful for larvae that are not big enough to eat Daphnia.

I don't need to use them now I have a Moina culture going (thanks to Morg!)