Water Mites are classified as microanimals. All animals are multicellular and have clearly defined organ systems - this includes the microanimals. Most can be seen with the naked eye, albeit with some difficulty. This Mite was photographed at 100x in the first image and at 400x in the second. The 400x image was reduced in size by 50% so as to fit on the screen.

The classification of Mite species is not an easy task, and for our purposes here, it is sufficient to identify this creature as a "Water Mite" and leave it at that. The Mite shown here, devoid of any leg hairs, is unable to swim fast, so its life is spent creeping slowly along the pond bottom muck - a bottom feeder in the true sense, and therefore easy to photograph. If they're not covered in muck, that is, which is how they spend their entire existence.