seen from China
seen from Oman
seen from China
seen from China
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seen from United Kingdom
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seen from Türkiye
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Epibionts!
An epibiont is any organism that lives on or attached to another organism, like barnacles attached to whales.
In this case, the epibiont is a microscopic protist called Opercularia. The host is a copepod larva that is referred to as a naplius.
The Opercularia are the jar-shaped things at the bottom of the naplius. If you look closely, you’ll see some small vortexes caused by the filtering action of the protists.
Epistylis sp. | ©Rogelio Moreno G.
Epistylis is a sessile, ciliated protozoan that propagates as colonies at the ends of non-contractile stalks on the skin, and sometimes the gills, of fish. It is not a true parasite but a epibiont that utilizes fish only as a substrate for attachment [1].
They are from 200-250 um long and colonies can reach up to 2mm long [2].
Eukaryota - Alveolata - Ciliophora - Oligohymenophorea - Peritrichia - Epistylidae - Epistylis [4]
