Re: Where can I find living Protozoans? Where do I need to look? Collect?

Noelene:
This what I do all the time for growing ciliates, amoeba, all sorts of 
flagellates (the smallest of the protists) and sometimes even heliozoans:

Collect water from a pond, puddle or stream, and place in a jar.  Add 
uncooked rice (a dozen grains is fine), and wait a few days.  (Keep it away 
from direct sunlight, and cover with plastic so it doesnt dry out.)  The 
rice grains supplies starch which feeds the bacteria that will feed the 
protists.  Sometimes all you see at first are tiny flagellates, but if you 
wait a few days some bigger ciliates will become abundant.

Protists are also common in damp soil, so you may want to add some to the 
jar.

If you can get someone to collect a jar of "activated sludge" from the 
aeration basin at your local sewage treatment plant (if you have one 
nearby)  it will be full of protists already, especially stalked ciliates 
including Vorticella that are easy to watch, since they do not swim.

Finally, if you luck out and find some termites, which can be found in a 
tree stump sometimes, their abdomens are full of the most remarkable 
protists: To see them, cut off the termite's "rear end" and add a drop of 
dilute salt solution (.7% by weight). (Don't let any of the termites get 
loose.) Squash this abdoment in the drop underneath a cover slip that has 
been coated with vasoline along the edge (do this by spreading a thin coat 
of vasoline on your palm, then gently scape the coverslide (all four edges) 
on your palm, being careful not to get fingerprints on it.  This prevents 
oxygen from rapidly killing the protists.  Then enjoy the show.
Good luck!

Dean Jacobson, plankton and protist watcher