What is a paramecium?

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The paramecium is a unicellular organism and only lives in fresh water. It settles in rivers, lakes and small puddles and, due to its small size of a good 0.3 mm, cannot be clearly recognized, but looks like a small point.

Paramecium feels at home here.
Paramecium feels at home here.

What you need:

  • microscope
  • Hay set
  • Freshwater
  • Rainwater

The small unicellular organisms can move very quickly and can therefore be recognized as paramecia and not as dirt.

So is the food chain of the unicellular organisms

  • In order for the paramecium to feed, it needs other living beings or organic substances.
  • If you see a puddle and there are rotten plants there, then you can assume that the tiny animal's habitat is also there.
  • It is not very demanding in terms of food intake and also feeds on bacteria that are in the water.

Paramecia and their uses

  • Since the paramecium not only feeds on organic substances, but also eats microorganisms such as bacteria, it is also used as an indicator of water pollution.
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  • The egg cell is very suitable as fish food for young fish. If you want to grow it yourself, you will need a container, rainwater, and hay. After a short time, enough paramecia have developed that can then be used as fish food.

Ciliates in nature

  • The paramecium uses countless eyelashes for locomotion, which also transport food into the mouth-like opening. Since the animal reproduces through simple cell division, it does not take long for a few to become very many.
  • Because of this and the fact that it also eats bacteria, it has a high status in the ecosystem and thus also contributes to clean fresh water.

If you want to breed paramecia yourself, you can also buy a ready-made approach for the home.

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