MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

If you wanted a 1% solution of methylene blue you could mix 1g of powder with 100ml water, then add a drop of that to your sample. Note that I haven't used methylene blue as a stain so I don't know the target dilution. 1% may be way too strong. I'm sure others here have used these two dyes and can g...

I'm often amazed at how quickly life springs up in new, temporary water sources. Your video is a great example.

If it's anything like fluorescent dyes, you need to create a stock solution, possibly a sub stock solution, and then add some of that to your sample. The calculations and solvents will depend on the solubility and molecular weight of the dye powder. Do you know the names of the dyes? If you do, try ...

Terrific image and video. The Rotifer looks like it's wearing a hoodie

Mitotrackers stain living/active mitochondria. They get trapped by the proton gradient across the inner mitochondrial membrane. They will also stain some bacteria, for the same reason. You may see staining in food vacuoles if they contain a still-viable organisms, but otherwise, you're seeing the m...

Alexander wrote: ↑

Mon May 27, 2024 5:24 am

MitoTracker Green is reported to stain mitochondria. Your pictures match that.

And yes, acridine orange stains the nucleus.

Thank you very much. Now I have a better idea of what to use and expect. I also have MitoTracker Red.

I viewed some freshwater Peritrichs under fluorescence with 2 different stains. It appears that the Acridine Orange has stained the macronucleus, and I think the MitoTracker Green has stained food inside food vacuoles. Can anyone confirm or correct this?

Dennis wrote: ↑

Sat May 25, 2024 10:30 am

macnmotion,

Nice footage.

Thanks

Various looks at Stentor coeruleus.

Freshwater sample from Lumpini Park, Bangkok, Thailand. Music created with Suno.

Beautiful desmid and terrific image.

convinced myself that a longitudinal division might end at the "mouth" True longitudinal division is pretty rare, in ciliates. Peritrichs do it that way (but that is probably a very derived kind of transverse fission, in which the whole organism is rotated by 90 degrees). is this showing the early ...

Lovely! :) The video shows cells in conjugation...i.e. having sex, not dividing. :) Division in Lacrymaria (as in most ciliates) is transverse, across the middle of the cell. In division, both the mother and daughter cells would be pointing in the same direction, whereas in conjugation they face on...

Lacrymaria - The Dance of Love

My sample was filled with dozens of happy Lacrymaria conjugating. Here are just a few of them. Freshwater sample from Lumpini Park, Bangkok, Thailand.

Awesome, congratulations. I can't wait to see what you film with it.

Paramecia from the Gulf of Thailand viewed with polarized light.

Single Slide Stentor Saturday.

My single slide series returns with a Stentor special! One slide. 15 minutes. How many Stentors can I find. Lots!! Playback at 1.5x speed. Freshwater sample from Lumpini Park, Bangkok, Thailand.

Automizer - thank you for your nice comment. macnmotion - a complete fluorescence system is probably the dream of every advanced microscope user. Regards Maciej Thanks for the follow up. I don't ha e the orange filter that clips near the eyepieces, however I don't view through the eyepieces anyway ...

That's the most beautiful display of Synura I've ever seen.

I highly recommend searching for and observing autofluorescence phenomena, just because of the amazing colors you can admire. Regards Maciej Last September I was given a complete Xenon fluorescence system for my Nikon scope by a friend who runs a university lab and had decommissioned the equipment....

Might that be a girdle view of a cenrtric diatom? You're fast approaching that point where you spend untold hours trying to identify these! It very well could be a girdle view. I shot many diatoms on an angle where it was clear that there were two centric halves of a diatom connected to each other ...

Very beautiful. I should search for more autofluorescent subjects.

Focus stack from video.

Thanks everyone for the comments

Slideshow - A selection of marine diatoms collected with a homemade plankton net (75 micron) from Koh Kut in the Gulf of Thailand. All images are focus stacks (Helicon Focus, Method B) from short video clips traveling through focus. Darkfield images using a 3-d printed patch stop: Nikon 10/0.25 Plan...

So much great about the video. Excellent videography, informative labeling and very funny soundtrack.

Luis Carlos wrote: ↑

Wed May 01, 2024 11:25 am

What is observed is the detachment of a gas vacuole. Arcellae use this type of vacuoles to regulate their buoyancy, to escape or to turn his theca

Thank you for that information.

MichaelG. wrote: ↑

Wed May 01, 2024 5:34 am

Nicely done

MichaelG.

Thanks

Sure Squintsalot wrote: ↑

Wed May 01, 2024 5:11 am

Seriously lively! Were you using a well slide?

No, a regular slide with a 24x50mm coverslip -- lots of lateral room to look around.

A closeup look at Suctorian tentacle movement. Suctorians have a spiral structure around their tentacles that acts like an accordian, moving the tentacles in and out.

Playback at 8x speed to better show this movement, which is very slow in real time.

This was a pretty active slide, including 2 Lacrymaria feeding.