MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

A very interesting and a very good quality video. I have never seen so many Vorticelli together. Is this DIC?

Thanks all for the detailed, informative comments and for the compliments. I have changed the title of the video and left out 'caudatum'. When I wrote down the length I already suspected that 'caudatum' would be wrong.

I think this is Paramecium caudatum, but I am not sure. The CV's of P. caudatum must have side channels and I do not see these in the ciliates I filmed. Best to look for it at the last part of the video,the oblique illumination part, that's also filmed at higher magnification and show more detail. A...

Very nice video and very interesting. What is the largest magnification you used?

Very nice and sharp photographs!

Thanks for the comments. And micro, thanks for the effort to find the species name.

Very nice, especially for a hand held photograph.

The spiral shaped bacteriae in this video are ~1 micron in diameter or even less. I measured them to be ~0.75 microns, but it's easy to make a measurement error of a few tenth of a micron. Inside the bacteriae, volutin grains are sometimes clearly visible as black spots. I don't know the name of the...

Nice try Jan!. I wonder if the specimen would be clearer with a lighter background?. Steve Steve, I tried that, but then the blue color bleeds into the bolack background, reducing the contrast Does anyone know how this would look compared to regular darkfield, but with a blue filter placed between ...

I found a rotifer today that I had not seen before. Well, I saw it before, but it always was to mobile to make a video. I think it is a Cephalodella, because of the general shape, the toes being larger then the other part of the foot and the bundle of stiff cilia around the mouth. Why do I think it ...

Here's my first experiment with Rheinberg illumination: a rotifer. Maybe not the most suited object, but it's not too bad.

Thank you 75RR. I learn this approach mostly from Bruce's comments on my video. And yes, I am (was, I am retired) a scientist, but in a very different domain: psychology.

Thanks Bruce. Nice that I have it right.

I found it very difficult to ID this ciliate and I may be wrong of course. The easiest part of ID-ing this ciliate was finding out that it is a hypotrich. But there are many hypotrichs. The one I observed is a slender one, which has al least two macro nucleii. Maybe four, because it looks like the t...

Nice video.
I did the same a couple of days ago, but the result was quit different: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2CIS9DedJ4

Thanks again Bruce. Are toxicysts really toxic? If yes, what then is their function? Are they used when hunting?

I think I found Lacrymaria olor. In pictures and video's I found a much longer neck in relation to the body most of the time, but this ciliate was not all of the other 'long neck' ciliates I considered. FOV of the video is 0.32x0.17 millimeters. The body of the ciliate without neck and head is about...

I am pretty sure this is Litonotus cygnus.

Thanks for the comments and compliments. I am glad that I had it right. I try to use Bruce's systematic approach when ID-ing and learn a lot.

Looks like Stichotricha aculeata, but (as usual) I am not sure. As far as I can see it has no lorica from where it operates, but It does seem to retreat into some kind of 'hole' from time to time. Length of this ciliate is about 106 microns.

No, the center disk in well centered and not too big.

I just did a quick experiment and cut a round piece of the right size from a red sheet of thin plastic. I used it with a dark filter on top of it, to block the block the light of the background field and it worked very well: the background stayed black and the specimen became nicely red. So I suppos...

Are you sure you have set up your microscope correctly and use all the available power? Yes, I am sure, I tried at least 10 times, with different colors and different objectives/magnifcations. Black field is no problem, but when I try Rheinberg the whole field becomes black. Or, when I don't close ...

I have bought Rheinberg filters from ebay. Problem is, that the image stays dark because there's not enough light going through the filters. I use a 50W halogen lamp in my orthoplan. I could use a 100W lamp, but that will create too much heat I think, because even with 50W I can feel that the filter...

Thanks again Bruce. I learn a lot from your comments.

Seems like they did a very thourough cleaning and maintainance job.

I found a new ciliate (well, new to me). I think it is a Linotus. It looks like Linotus lamella, but then the macro nuclei are out of place. They should be below each other instead of next to each other.

Very nice photograph!
Is this brownisch color it's normal, live color?

Thank you Bruce. I adapted the name to 'Hypotrich with symbiotic algae, probably Oxytricha chlorelligera'.

Nice filters and a nice effect.