I have a small 35 mm film tube that I put a grain of rice into as a food source to see what would show up. It turned out to be quite rich in species, mostly small algae, ciliates and flagellates. However there are a number of larger ciliates, likely Stylonychia, and what I assumed were flatworms. The mode of locomotion was very reminiscent of a ciliated protist. Wrong! I think. Yesterday I saw no evidence of a corona but today I did, a very small and unobtrusive one.
Yesterday I was able to count them in the dozens but today I found only a few but with a lot of oval cysts (or eggs). So I'm assuming they are cysts (or eggs) that were the result of yesterday's rotifers. Not sure what changed, maybe a dropping food supply or unfavourable water conditions. Several were quite lethargic and there were also a few dead ones laying around.
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| 35 um long, 20 wide, smaller than most bdelloid eggs |
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