A Paramecium Takes a Poop

I'm sure that any of you who have peered at pond water for a while have seen a Paramecium expel waste products. I've seen this plenty of times, but today I decided to see if I could make a short instructional video of that process. Turns out to be pretty hard to do, mainly because of the movement of the critter. My solution was to find an individual who wasn't moving much and just watch until the event occurred. Kind of like potty training where you might wait and wait for the little tyke to cooperate and "let it go." Eventually I caught it on a video and uploaded it for your viewing pleasure. I was using a Zeiss Neofluar 40X phase contrast objective on a Nikon Labophot stand (with Nikon phase contrast condenser).

[Adele-logk]

incroyable cette petite vidéo très instructive 💪

[roanmaye]

I'll never open my mouth underwater again

[DaphniaTheWaterFlea]

if you put a didinium next to it the paraceum will get eaten but the didinium is small predator and the paraceum isa larger prey

[horsesU]

What the heck is wrong with me??? I'm sitting here looking at some microscobic thing taking a dump!

[alexee]

now why am I interested in watching protozoa shitting and why am I even look at this video

[microuruguay]

Excellent Bill. What camera do you use?

[orlandogonzalez]

Esto tan milenario, tan primitivo, tan simple... una maravilla que casi nadie quiere ver por estar atento en sua guerras y sus monedas y sus falsos problemas.

[daryfitrady]

Oh apparently even these guys can crap.

[mahadyfofana]

nul la pire vidéo au monde pourquoi vous l'avez posté. A cause de vous j'ai un devoir