Paramecium week on the radio Ö1: Paramecium in focus with Dr. Bettina Sonntag (in German):

Paramecium bursaria (Video) is a model ciliate in protist science that lives in symbiosis with algae (green). Here, we see the characteristic two contractile vacuoles with the collecting channels, the cell mouth (slit-like depression with many moving cilia in the middle of the cell) and the macronucleus (appears ellipsoidal in grey).

Pelagostrombidium fallax feeds on planktonic algae and digests everything but the chloroplast (=’stolen chloroplast’ or ‘kleptoplast’). From the kleptoplasts (photosynthesis), the ciliate receives additional nutrients.

Paradileptus elephantinus is a huge ciliate that even ingests rotifers (small metazoans).

Lagynus elegans prefers the oxygen-depleted zones in a lake.