Place 2 or 3 brine shrimp nauplius larvae in the dish and watch the animals with the dissecting microscope. Note the effect of contact with tentacles on the prey. Place a living Hydra on a microscope slide with a small drop of water. Place the slide on the stage of the compound microscope, without a coverslip, and observe the animal with 100X. Observe the morphology of the animal noting the column , basal disk, tentacles and mouth . Hydra reproduces both sexually and asexually.
Asexual reproduction is via buds that form on the parent animal.
They look like, and are, small hydras. Gonads, or sexual organs, may form on the parent animal also. These are either ovaries or testes which produce eggs or sperm by meiosis. See if your individual has asexual buds or gonads. Look closely at the surface of your Hydra to see the conspicuous spherical nematocysts .