Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
In May 2026, I found a large, brilliantly blue single-celled organism in a small urban pond on the outskirts of Bangkok. I had no idea what it was.
Within a week, with help from the online microscopy community, I learned it was Condylostomides coeruleus — a rare heterotrich ciliate that had only ever been documented in three other places on Earth: Venezuela, Florida, and China. My pond in Nonthaburi became the first record for all of Southeast Asia.
This video is about the days between "unknown large blue ciliate" and that confirmation — the footage, the doubt, the international chain of people who made the identification possible, and what it means that an amateur with a microscope and a neighborhood pond can still find something like this.
⏱️ Key moments in the video:
00:00 What Is This Blue Thing?
00:47 The Pond
01:22 Something Large and Blue
03:09 Posting for Help
03:54 We Have a Name
04:30 Doubt Sets In
05:15 Ten Words
05:36 What Is Condylostomides coeruleus?
06:47 That's Not Nothing
07:57 The Community Behind the Finding
09:08 And Now the World Knows
Acknowledgements:
With thanks to Bruce Taylor and Prof. Genoveva Esteban for their help in identifying this organism.
Papers:
Hines HN, McCarthy PJ, Esteban GF. "First Records of 'Flagship' Soil Ciliates in North America." Protist 171, 125739 (2020). doi.org/10.1016/j.protis.2020.125739
Chi Y et al. "Exploring the biogeography, morphology, and phylogeny of the condylostomatid ciliates." Marine Life Science & Technology 6, 365–404 (2024). doi.org/10.1007/s42995-024-00223-3
Foissner W. Terrestrial and semiterrestrial ciliates from Venezuela and Galápagos. Denisia 35 (2016).
#Ciliates #Heterotrichea #Microscopy #DarkfieldMicroscopy #ThaiMicrocosmos #Protist #Bangkok
In May 2026, I found a large, brilliantly blue single-celled organism in a small urban pond on the outskirts of Bangkok. I had no idea what it was.
Within a week, with help from the online microscopy community, I learned it was Condylostomides coeruleus — a rare heterotrich ciliate that had only ever been documented in three other places on Earth: Venezuela, Florida, and China. My pond in Nonthaburi became the first record for all of Southeast Asia.
This video is about the days between "unknown large blue ciliate" and that confirmation — the footage, the doubt, the international chain of people who made the identification possible, and what it means that an amateur with a microscope and a neighborhood pond can still find something like this.
⏱️ Key moments in the video:
00:00 What Is This Blue Thing?
00:47 The Pond
01:22 Something Large and Blue
03:09 Posting for Help
03:54 We Have a Name
04:30 Doubt Sets In
05:15 Ten Words
05:36 What Is Condylostomides coeruleus?
06:47 That's Not Nothing
07:57 The Community Behind the Finding
09:08 And Now the World Knows
Acknowledgements:
With thanks to Bruce Taylor and Prof. Genoveva Esteban for their help in identifying this organism.
Papers:
Hines HN, McCarthy PJ, Esteban GF. "First Records of 'Flagship' Soil Ciliates in North America." Protist 171, 125739 (2020). doi.org/10.1016/j.protis.2020.125739
Chi Y et al. "Exploring the biogeography, morphology, and phylogeny of the condylostomatid ciliates." Marine Life Science & Technology 6, 365–404 (2024). doi.org/10.1007/s42995-024-00223-3
Foissner W. Terrestrial and semiterrestrial ciliates from Venezuela and Galápagos. Denisia 35 (2016).
#Ciliates #Heterotrichea #Microscopy #DarkfieldMicroscopy #ThaiMicrocosmos #Protist #Bangkok
