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Mystery Bug of the Month

Strange Suctorians

Target Higher Forms. . . . .

OK, these are the guys to shoot for in most activated sludge plants. They are called Suctorians. They almost always indicate an extremely healthy system and usually the BOD in the final effluent is very low, the TSS is low and things are running smoothly. If you have these in your plant, you are probably running very good and should congratulate yourselves!

Although they look very pretty, watch out, well only if you are a microscopic higher life form. They are deadly! They stab unsuspecting higher life forms that swim by and suck their guts out. Nice huh- violence even under the microscope- eat or be eaten, same as the laws of the jungle, oh well, It was amazing and a weird experience to watch . . . ..

We do have videos of this, but they are too large to load on a website. They are one megabyte for each second. Some of the videos were 20-30 seconds, so you can see how big the files would get. You may contact us for copies of the videos if you are interested.

These photomicrographs were taken from a wastewater sample. Most of the objectives used were 100x, 400x and 1000x.

Come take a closer look at the amazing world under the microscope!

This was a little different than the normal suctorian It had a hard shell like a lorica and a stem or base
There were definitely long, suctorial tentacles. Lorica" is Latin for "armor"; In microscopy a Lorica is a "house", test, envelope, or case that can be secreted and/or assembled by ciliates. It is generally fitting the body loosely and has an opening at one (anterior) or both ends.		Suctorians are protozoan of the class or order Suctoria, which live, as adults, attached by a stalk to the floc particles and feed by means of long, suctorial tentacles. Many suctoria are around 15-30 μm in size, with a non-contractile stalk and often have a lorica or shell.

There were distinct ridges on the lorica		It was hard to get very good photo of this organism due to the floc stuctures that were around it and the depth of field.
In this series of photos, I never moved the slide the same Suctorian is is all photos The only thing moving are the long, suctorial tentacles.		Notice how if you jump from one photo to the next the shorten and lengthen or curl sometimes

Remember, even though it is only a drop of water and seems flat on the slide, they are 3-D, you might need to focus in and out on your microscope
They can sometimes be hidden in the floc structures- look for spikes		or microtubules which they use as suckers in obtaining their food
When a passing free swimming ciliate or flagellate touches the tentacles it will stick and become paralyzed. Slowly the protoplasm of the prey is been sucked through the tentacles.		Slowly the protoplasm of the prey is been sucked through the tentacles.

Suctoria Scientific classification Kingdom: Protista Phylum: Ciliophora Class: Phyllopharyngea Subclass: Suctoria Typical orders Exogenida Endogenida Evaginogenida Common genera include Podophrya and Sphaerophrya and Tokophrya and Acineta

Actually, on a movie it is a bit better

We do have videos of this if you are interested

They do move slowly, so you have to have patience

Suctoria reproduce by asexual reproduction.

Suctoria bud off many new small cells while the 'adult' stays intact. Some of the species develop the new cells in an internal pouch and escape through an opening . In other species the new cells grow outside the parent cell surface.

Want to see more of the Mystery Bug- videos and photos

Mystery Bug 9-04 Mystery Filament of the Month 9-04 Mystery Filament of the Month 10-04

Mystery Bug 10-04 Mystery Bug-11-04 Mystery Bug-12-04 Mystery Bug-1-05

Mystery Bug-2-05 Mystery Bug-3-05 Mystery Bug-4-05 Mystery Bug-5-05

Mystery Bug-6-05 Mystery Bug-7-05 Mystery Bug-8-05

Mystery Bug-9-05 Mystery Bug-10-05 Mystery Bug-11-05 Mystery Bug-12-05

Stay tuned each month

Mystery Bug 1-06 Mystery Bug 2-06 Mystery Bug 3-06

Mystery Bug 4-06 Mystery Bug 5-06 Mystery Bug 6-06

More to come soon!

Enlargements: If you liked these pictures and want to see additional microorganisms check out the pages below.

Amoeba

Flagellates

Free Swimming Ciliates

Eating under the microscope- Dinner time!

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