The cold weather of winter is rapidly approaching. Soon, the remaining trees and flowers will dry up and go dormant. The Payson Lake has already lost nearly all of its algae, and there are few ponds left in the area that have not dried up since the monsoon ended early this month. A trip to the East Fork of the Verde River was in order! Located about 4 miles north of Payson, the slow moving creek still had a few green patches of hair like algae to be found. That is the richest hunting ground for aquatic life - the short green hair like strands in a moderately aerated enviornment. Samples were taken from several locations, the best being a slow moving section that had near shore growth within reach. Some of the most amazing life forms I have yet seen under the microscope were found! The algae was full of life and many very peculiar types were seen. All life was returned after imaging to the aqueous environment.

Click on these thumbnails for the full size image:

Here is the location - Down the turn off to the right to the Verde River parking area.

Using my 3D printed forceps (!), I am collecting the green hair like strands you see here just above the bottle.

60x Images:

Here is what I saw at low magnification in a standard transmitted light image. The algae is branched and tree like surrounded by organic debris and a lot of small swimming protozoans were zooming by. There were a few larger shrimp like things, but I could not catch them!

The same scene with Dark Field Illumination. All the dark areas were moving with tiny micro animals. You can again see why dark field is such a great way to image.

This tiny 2 mm long nematode was spotted crawling in the algae strands. I was able to scoop him up with an eyedropper, and hold it still by putting a cover slip over him to restrain him but not injure. It has very complex detail inside its transparent body. When it moved in water it swam with a "S" like motion as a snake might swim. As soon as it touched the algae, it now stopped and slithered through the strands in an apparent intelligent fashion. Not bad for an animal with only a few hundred brain cells!

150x Images:

I can still use the dark field stop at this magnification. The view is totally amazing to me. The algae looks like tiny water ferns. There was so much action here! I tried to make a movie clip, which I may post. Protozoans were swimming everywhere.

Movie 1

The movie is here on Youtube on my channel. This is at 150x and you can see it is like a hive of bees so busy with protozoans!

This small slowly swimming diatom like shape was pretty common once I started looking around. Many of them would swim in different directions criss-crossing all over some of the fields.

At 150x, the nematode is awesome! Here is the head region. Here the tentacles around the mouth are seen and several internal organs can be visualized as well. Two nerve cords go down the sides of the body as you will see better later. Nematodes have what is known as a nerve cord brain. Instead of a swelling in the head region, the brain cells are distributed in a line along the animals body. Amazing!

Closer to the center of the body, nerves and what appears to be digestion of organic matter is seen.

The internal food tract, and nerves.

The tail is amazing. Look at those gorgeous nerve cords running down its sides. Its like an X-ray to the mind of the animal. I must build a robot someday like this!

600x Images:

Just above center is a spindle shaped protozoan. This type was seen flittering about amongst the branches of the algae like a small bird looking for food.

Several other types of small spindle shapes moving slowly along. They have excellent internal details!

Several VERY narrow spindles. These swam slowly as well, and were like spears knifing through the medium.

Right in the center was this elongated swimming log shaped animal. On the left are smaller protozoans.

The head of the nematode was full of detail at this magnification. Since the gullet is seen as a ghostly tube coming in from the tentacles, I assume the clusters of spheres are digestive in nature.

The tail of the nematode has hooked appendages. You can also see tiny sensory hairs as well.

Close up of one of the spindles with interesting detail inside. I was tempted to try to get the 1500x on it, but it was moving along too fast to capture. How does it swim?

The small branching algae is seen attached to a larger more barell shaped strand with amazing details inside.