Virtual Pond Dip, Anyone?

At this point, your probably wondering what these squiggly little creatures in my jar are, and i am here to tell you just that. 

This is a Hydra. It's about 4-30 mm long (that's including their tentacles). They are usually pale brown or green. You'd usually find these  little creatures under floating weed (like Duckweed). They reproduce asexually (by budding). They can capture tiny flees using their stinging tentacles. 

This is a Daphnia. They are .5 - 4 mm in size. What i thought was kind of cool is that they actually have a beating heart, a compound eye and moving limbs. They are also available in pet shops for fish food. The females even carry live young.

This is a Spirogyra. It's slimy to touch, the fila

ments can be up to many centimeters long.

This is a Cyclops (sweet name huh? I thought so too) They are .25 - 3 mm. The female can carry a pair of eggs sacs and apparently it's a fast swimmer. It has one eye. OH and guess what? The greek mythological creature got it's name from this little fella. That is by-far the coolest thing I've learnt all day.

This is called a Rotifer. It can be about 1 mm in size and you could find these little guys attached to other plants, organisms, or just creeping on plants or mud surfaces. They move like leeches. 

This is a Desmid. They can be up to 1 mm in size. You could find these guys particularly in neutral to acidic waters. They are divided into two halves [semicells] which are often mirror images. 

This is a Actinosphaerium. You could find this little creature amongst plants [especially flat leafed ones]. As you can see, they have hair-like pseudopodia called axopodia which are often stiffened that radiate outwards. 

http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/index.html?http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/ponddip/index.html

I found this site to be very interesting, because it included a lot of pictures and fun facts. Everything on this post is from this site.