In the right orientation, you should locate the contractile vacuole pores, which stain as round discs about the size of five-ten basal bodies. The cytoproct stains as a faint line that is to be found just posterior to the oral groove and on the same side of the organism. Examine the prepared slides showing binary fission in Paramecium . Note that division occurs in a transverse plane. This is a characteristic of the ciliated protozoa and distinguishes them from flagellated protozoa, which divide alone the longitudinal plane.
Paramecium also reproduces sexually by the process of conjugation.
During conjugation two organisms come together, temporarily fuse along their oral areas, and exchange micronuclei. Then the cells separate, reorganize their nuclear material, replace their macronuclei with the newly organized genetic material and subsequently undergo further division.