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Paramecium Conjugation - Negative

Although quick to reproduce, a paramecium cannot always successfully compete with its most extraordinary predator. Didinium is smaller in size, but exhibits a ravenous appetite for paramecia. Also classified as protozoa, most species of Didinium are barrel shaped, surrounded by cilia, and have a sharp horn with which they attack and maneuver the prey. After forcing a paramecium into a position in line with its mouth, Didinium opens wide in order to swallow its meal whole. The tiny creature can ingest a paramecium twice its size and repeat the feat as many as a dozen times a day. A group of didinia can rapidly annihilate a large colony of paramecia.