If elephants, orcas, and tigers are charismatic megavertebrates, I would argue that the fascinating tardigrade---water bear---is the microbial equivalent!  Tardigrades are much in the news because of their quite extreme abilities to survive challenging conditions by entering a "cryptobiotic" state (something like suspended animation).  In our laboratory, we do a certain degree of "tardigrade husbandry" and "tardigrade wrangling" of these tiny multicellular eukaryotes.  But our real goal is simple:  do tardigrades have a resident microbiome, and what happens to it during and after cryptobiosis?  Perhaps the microbes enter cryptobiosis as well...or perhaps a new microbiome must be established upon revival!  One thing is for sure:  they are fascinating beasts to have around the laboratory.