Trichodina, a unicellular ciliate belonging to the peritrich family uses its cilia to float like a hovercraft over surfaces. The microorganism is also equipped with a circular arrangement of thorn ornaments, that look like a crown under the microscope. These thorn-like protrusions allow Trichodina to stay attached firmly to surfaces of other bigger water creatures. Even if the host should wiggle, Trichodina will not be easily detached. Trichodina pursues a parasitic life style.
Surprisingly, this ciliate is not being recognised as prey by Hydra and doesn't trigger the venous nettle cells at all.
This unicellular ciliated microbe lives on the surface of Hydra without doing harm. Trichodina simply feeds on expended nettle cells, left-over food particles or bacteria growing on Hydra or suspended in the water.
While this odd relationship between Hydra and Trichodina is still full of mysteries, for Hydra Trichodina is simply a self-replicating, free of charge cleaning robot, something like a Roomba.
Trichodina has a dark side too. It is not always so harmless to its host organisms. Fish and molluscs are also targeted Trichodina, where it prefers to settle on the gills. A Trichodina infection can harm fish and shellfish significantly, making this ciliate a serious economic threat to fish farms.
#microscope #microbes #fishfarming
Microscopes used:
Olympus CX43
Olympus BX53
Cameras used:
Sony A 6400
Fuji XH2S
Nikon Z9
Canon R5
Instagram:
nomadic_nos...
Music:
www.epidemicsound.com/music
20 дек 2022
