Interesting Videos

[washingtond]

Part 1

I took a dead coral out of the 200 gal tank this morning and placed into a cup. After one hour of it sitting on the counter I saw something swimming in the water along with some pods. Here is what they look like under a micro scope. Does anybody have any idea what they are?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW8kimQe7f4

Part 2
Here is a shot of the drop of water as they are dying as it evaporates and their movement slows down. I could also swear that they are also shrinking as they die. The second part of this video is a new drop of water at about 50 sec in. You can see things move as shadows at different levels of the water drop. I could only focus at the top or bottom and racked the focus back and forth on the first part of the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEKVe9kQYFg

 

[TitusvileSurfer]

How cool is that? The REAL clean up crew.

 

[washingtond]

BUMP

 

[boxfishpooalot]

what magnification were you looking at them at?

 

[washingtond]

X10 on the last video and X4 on the first looking at one drop of water on each.

 

[yellowwatchmen]

Thats awesome.

 

[ClayWagner]

Crazy.

 

[washingtond]

Does anybody know what they are?

 

[boxfishpooalot]

go to marinedepot forums.

Go to Dr. Ron Shimmiks forum. He will tell you what he thinks they are.

 

[washingtond]

Thanks for the suggestion, I have posted on Dr Ron’s forum at Marine Depot but he is currently in Greece so I hope to get his input when he returns. Some input that I have gotten thinks that they are Pods in an early an stage of deveopment.

 

[yrema]

cool!

 

[washingtond]

Here is what Dr Ron said on his reply:

Hi,

Yup. Ciliated protozoans, beyond that generalized identification, it is practically impossible to identify them. Such animals are often considered to be part of the "clean-up crew," but there are also some data that indicate that some ciliates are pathogenic and will assist in the demise of corals.

Not much you can do about them in either case. Healthy corals may be able to fight off the pathogenic ones, and the scavengers are really beneficial.

Cheers, Ron