A Cyclopoida - 10 Legged Water Spider

This Cyclopoida not only sat still for some still shots, he even hung around for a short video screening. They usually hop around so fast you could never get any video of one.

Look closely at this guy though. It looks like he has 6 legs, but in reality, each leg has a double right under it.

Microscope: Nikon Fluophot Flourescence Research Microscope
Camera: Canon T1i w/ EOS Extension Tube adaptor w/Nikon 2.5X Projector lens
Scope Settings: 15.1 MP Canon 1.6x Camera over 10x or 20x Objective

Here's a video of him.

Full frame at 10x...

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Interesting stuff.

neat captures, Mitch

Thanks for looking Macroshooter and Dean. The aquarium I started several weeks ago is producing all kinds of neat stuff these days.

Hi Mitch. Good to see you are producing some great stuff with that new gear - very interesting.
Happy New Year and great to see you're still posting.

Hey David, glad to see you around. Yeah, got tired of going out in the cold and spending money on gas. Now I can stay inside and watch my yard birds through the window and play with the microscope. It's still photography though.

Good stuff Mitch, its amazing to think that your aquarium is home to so many interesting organisms. The video is awesome, as you said yourself the g forces he's experiencing during those twitchy jumps have got to be huge. It's funny to hear you speak

Thanks Cameron. The aquarium has no fish. I set it up to provide micro-organisms through the winter, but now I want to see how long I can keep it going. It seems to be doing it's job. I set it up with a 3 gallon glass jar from Walmart, with a heavy glass lid. Looks like one of those big candy jars in an old time soda fountain store. I added a little gravel on the bottom, then bought some aquarium plants for oxygen, cause I did not want a pump, filter or air pump going 24/7. I do have a light on it about 8 hours a day though, for the plants.

Initially, I bought 2 snails cause there was a piece of weed in there with them. I added snails, weeds and water, plus three small jars of Mississippi river water and their stuff, then some more aquarium plants I bought later.

Now I am seeing a lot of new baby snails in there, not from my big snails. They were in the river water. As were all the bugs, which I can just barely see with the naked eye. I'm also seeing lots of rotifers and Vorticella that I can get from the scum that grows on the plant leaves. When I put some flake food in there and wait a day, you just wouldn't believe what comes to feed on that.

Good shots and interesting "bug" - thought at first it was a "water bear"
Brian V.

wow..this is amazing stuff...the unseen..

Thanks Brian and Girish. This bug is actually jus big enough to see when he moves in good light. Quite a bit bigger than a Water Bear, which you can't see. A Water Bear would be the size of the brown spot on this guy, which is just what you think it is.

Wow, this one is really cool!

canonloader wrote in post #11597018
Thanks Brian and Girish. This bug is actually jus big enough to see when he moves in good light. Quite a bit bigger than a Water Bear, which you can't see. A Water Bear would be the size of the brown spot on this guy, which is just what you think it is.

That might explain why I haven't been able to spot one
Brian v.

Thanks Kurt. They seem to be getting pretty common in my aquarium. I got another one yesterday afternoon by mistake. Didn't even know he was there till he jumped in front of the lens. In a regular aquarium, the fish would find them and eat them.

Brian, you might be able to see a water bear with your MPE-65, but he would be very small. It takes a total magnification of about 100x or so to see any detail though. A 10x objective and 10x eyepieces.

Where have you looked for them? I collected 5 samples of moss from the woods, then soaked it a few hours and sucked out a few drops with a pipette. And of all the times I have taken samples from those moss samples, I have found exactly one water bear. So they are not as common as you would think.

I hear, the best places to find them are in mosses on rocks where water is slowly moving over the moss, not too fast. The short kind of moss, in a slow creek or a wet seep.