#freshwater fanworm

[hyperfixation-floodgate]

I'll think I have a pretty good expansive knowledge of zoology and then I'll put a funny looking piece of aquatic grass under a microscope and wait that doesn't look like algae, those are....

????

FANWORMS?? THE FLUFFY THINGS THAT LIVE IN TUBES ON CORAL REEFS AND HYDROTHERMAL VENTS? THEY'RE IN THE LAKE DOWN THE ROAD?

Of the 10,000+ species of polycheates, only like 168 of them live in freshwater and only a fraction of those are fanworms, and ur telling me I found some of these guys with my $30 microscope from Amazon?

There's so little about them I can't even find a picture of what I have, much less ID it, without heading into some scientific publishing.

[Video id: Microscope video of clear creature in a translucent red tube on a plant, with multiple tentacles waving outside the tube like a fan. It retracts into the tube instantly as it's spooked, then slowly emerges into a fan again.]

#microscopy #fanworm #freshwater fanworm #science #the horror of thinking I'm looking at algae and then seeing it pulsate #then finding the tentacles