We need not dive many thousands of metres into the deep sea in order to discover creatures that look as if conjured up by imagination. It is enough to immerge just a few centimetres into the water of a lake, and we find ourselves in another world with often bizarre dwellers. Lakes are stagnant waters that look quite peaceful to us. But the quiet is deceptive: above and below the water surface, life is anything but peaceful also in standing water. Let us go on an expedition to a well-known biosphere and get acquainted with another side of it, mostly hidden from our sight.