Microscopic Pond Life

[Mucky_Waters]

Stumbled across this old timers homemade videos of microscopic pond life.The clarity of the videos is amazing for a homemade setup, and I admire the old guys ingenuity and enthusiasm. Make sure the youtube video settings are set to HD to get the best video clarity.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

What a great find! Thanks for sharing @Mucky_Waters.
Just a sliver if a glimpse of what really is the prime group of inhabitants in any Garden Pond.

 

[Lisak1]

This is awesome! Makes me long for a microscope/camera hook up of my own to play around with. I would love to see how things change from season to season and in different areas of the pond. Very cool! Thanks for sharing @Mucky_Waters

 

[MitchM]

Fantastic!

 

[cas]

So if a garden pond is started from tap water, how many of those organisms do you think it would have? In other words, where the heck do they all come from?

 

[MitchM]

So if a garden pond is started from tap water, how many of those organisms do you think it would have? In other words, where the heck do they all come from?

In no particular order; atmospheric dust, fish, plants, birds, bugs, precipitation.
One of the great things about an outdoor pond.
Even better, when first setting up a pond, take a scoop of mud and water from a local healthy waterway and introduce it into the new pond.
Depending on the tap water quality, tap water may be lifeless.

 

[addy1]

So neat!

My dad used to have us collect pond water, we would then use the microscope to look at all the neat critters that was in it. We would keep a bottle of it on the window ledge and watch as it changed.

Always nice and green!

 

[Meyer Jordan]

Even better, when first setting up a pond, take a scoop of mud and water from a local healthy waterway and introduce it into the new pond.

A bit of common garden soil works well also.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

What really got my attention was at the beginning of the second video when he was collecting the samples. These samples were collected from common pond weed by his own admission.
Anyone who allows even a small amount of pond weed to flourish in their pond has my deepest admiration. This aquatic plant species, though rampantly invasive, is one of the foremost sites of mini-habitats for myriad micro- and meio- aquatic creatures as evidenced by the videos.
This gentleman is most definitely a true ponder.