MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

An expert over on photomicrography.net says that this is "a Microsporidium-like parasite. Since the nucleus seems uneffected, the parasite most like is a Morellospora species." The dots inside the circular inclusions are tiny spores that can infect other amoeba when released.

Thanks for your kind words!

Great idea! I contacted Siemensma this morning and got a prompt reply suggesting a parasite of some kind.

Could it be some sort of fungus or mold where all the little dots are spores waiting to be released?

A frequently photographed desmid Micrasterias rotata with polarized lighting. A stack of 17 images.

Cheers, David
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Does anyone know what's going on with this amoeba? There were several individuals of the same species in that particular sample, and all had the strange inclusions. The amoeba is approximately 250µ long x 150µ wide. The largest circular inclusion is about 55µ in diameter and the 'dots' inside it are...

Gorgeous. Informative. Wonderful to see the ciliary beating patters so clearly.

You might try a small syringe with a blunt-tip needle. A 1 ml. syringe with a 20Ga or 22Ga needle is a handy combination.

Wow - that's an impressive result! How long did it take to get that density of creatures? For a non-vegetarian option, I've tried a few tiny pieces of raw chicken or even some of the juice from the raw chicken container - but not too much or it will get smelly. The results vary widely, apparently de...

Lovely videos! The DIC is great, but I especially like the dark field lighting. On several occasions, I've had a 100x50mm dish of pond water with a mud layer on the bottom that during the day had a few Spirostomum in or just above the mud. However, when I looked into the dish at night, there were va...

A simple technique for making very fine tip needles: https://microwiki.org/wiki/index.php/Tutorial_on_etching_tungsten_probes A battery works fine as the DC source, but you don't have easy control of the voltage. You can easily get any tip size by varying the etching time and the depth the wire is d...

Lovely ... It's especially nice to see all the details in the high magnification segments.

Do you know of any good references for identifying oligochaete worms?

Thanks, David

As others have suggested, mine normally go down the drain or out in the garden. A different scenario, however: recently I enriched a couple of bowls of pond water with a little juice from some raw chicken meat. Often that works well to increase the numbers of protozoa. This time, however, I overdid ...

How about $200? I've put it up on eBay (at a higher price, of course), but would rather sell it here.

Anyone tempted at $210?

A bit of additional information: These were designed for precise positioning, so the excursions are relatively small. I'd guess 5-10 mm in both directions for each of the linear slides. It takes many turns of the knob to get to the full excursion. Adjustments are very smooth and easy, but without an...

I believe this device was used for positioning samples in x-ray crystallography. The construction is very high-quality: the machining is excellent, I can't feel backlash in any of the adjustments, the movement is smooth in all directions, the engraving is precise. A lovely piece of work. It provides...

I just found a methods paper from a lab that does research on Hydra. The solution they use to rear their Hydra is essentially identical to the artificial pond water we used for the crayfish. Another lab uses a somewhat different solution, but the same idea. https://openhydra.org/wp-content/uploads/2...

For quite a few years, we have used 'artificial pond water' for keeping crayfish. The high death rates we were getting when we used tap water disappeared. We weren't specifically considering protozoa, but there were often healthy clusters of peritrichs on the crayfish. Artificial pond water might be...

Maciej - Interesting video. I believe the dark/shiny lines in the fans are air tubes (trachea; little ones are called tracheoles), some of which look so dark because of the lighting. Trachea have some of the functions of blood vessels in vertebrates, carrying oxygen-rich air to the cells and taking ...

Thanks, Einman. These are 'Friends and Family' prices. If I do end up posting these scopes on eBay, the prices will be higher.

Cheers, David

I have two very nice stereo microscopes to sell, a Nikon SMZ1500 and a Zeiss Stemi SV11 APO. You can see photos at: https://dy5.smugmug.com/Stereo-microscopes SMZ1500: - introduced around 2000 as their top-of-the-line stereo scope; PM me for PDFs of a sales brochure and instruction manual - this sco...

Unfortunately, that lmscope list of software is outdated (2015). For instance: The current Sony software does now have live view. The current Nikon software (NX Tether) is free.

It's true that going to DSLR or mirrorless cameras will significantly increase your options. For instance, Sony has free software for tethered shooting, Imaging Edge . I used it for a while with a Sony A7R4 and a Mac Mini, and it worked well. However, I like tethered capture with Capture One better....

Nikon scopes use what they call 'fly eye' illumination. In addition to a standard diffuser, there is a plastic element in the light path that has a pattern of bumps ('microlens array') that essentially breaks up the image of the filament/LED into hundreds of tiny images. Would something like that be...

I know almost nothing about algae, but that looks like Brownian motion of the tiny particles. No single particle actually goes anyplace, it's just being jostled by random small movements of the molecules around it. The movements should be greater at higher temperatures than at lower ones.

I'm moving to the Sony mirrorless world, and must part with my Nikon equipment. It seems sensible to post the macro lenses here for a group dedicated to photographing small things. All of the lenses listed are in 'like new' condition unless otherwise noted. For each one: the glass is clear without s...

macnmotion -

Thanks for all the information on your indoor pond! It looks like you've been very successful at keeping the ecology stable - not an easy task.

Cheers, David

Fascinating video and impressive diversity of creatures. Could you say a bit more about the collection site?

Interesting ... looks like it probably is some sort of color effect that I'm picking up on. To my eye, the image emphasizing magenta is most affected and one emphasizing blue is least affected.

Cheers, David

The diatom second from the left shows the effect most. It might be some sort of psychophysical effect arising from the adjacent, saturated colors.

In any event, it's not a big deal. Clearly not a flaw in your overall system because your video imagery is great.

Cheers, David