MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

Thanks for these beautiful results, Wes. Was that first image a ciliate, and was that protozoan still active ( as in a gentle vital strain treatment with Janus Green)? It would be good to know how long you exposed these pond organisms to your dilute stain ( approx. that is), before these stain effec...

Hi high plains sailor, I find our PM system has a dreadful aspect...I did not notice it at first. Folks who send you a PM can actually delete their PM to you..after you received the PM..I do not like this feature of forum PM system! Charlie guevara

Thanks again Malphi, for the excellent spotlight on that vintage text: "Through Magic Glasses". Microscopy offers enjoyment in the texts as we all progressed on from Anton L. of Delft/Netherlands...we can pursue so much enrichment of our world views with microscopy, and forum microscopy as Oliver Ki...

Hi, redflanker..the hydras by habit...feed at or near waters surface...in less than 2.53 cm deep ditch/ rut waters. But I crudely scooped my collection samples..so I did not know where these hydras were living. Hydras are quite mobile..so they perhaps go to different areas of shallow ditch-waters..a...

Thanks, Michael G./ Malpi for your wonderful sharing of a 'founding text for you as a child' : " Through Magic Glasses"/ Ms. Arabella B. Buckley. I am eager to encounter and read this suggested text you treated us to images of. Thanks, M.G. for your pleasure with doggie and my recent microscopy fiel...

Happy thanks giving day to all, Charlie guevara

This 1880 London, UK text is in a series of natural history books for children. A microscopy treat for all ages! Aspects of Oliver's world wide microscopy forum carry on the pursuits advocated by this 1880 gem of a text. Charlie Guevara, finger lakes/US

The near mono-culture ( certainly fair to call it an algal bloom) of one species of Spirogyra, the notable sprinkle of one species of large desmid within the filamentous algal bloom such charming hues of deep green and then the slow writhing/undulating Euglena species with their brick-red eye spots....

These tractor rut collected Euglena species are loaded with food store paramylum bodies, it's 11/19..no show of flagelae, extreme writhing/ 'euglenoid motions' hamper in focus total organism images. The writhing, spiral motions, the waves of bulges progressing along the Euglena's body lengths a plea...

Hi Bob, our son had two pet shop bought hedgehogs ( same species as yours I sense), great pets for years. They love meal worms/ adult beetles of these meal worms. They constantly lick their spines to insure an irritant of their saliva coats the points of their spines. They enjoy being handled and do...

So here we have it forum folks..what to do about this irksome senior poster...hmmm. all the best, Charlie Guevara who supports free speech...but forum manners and seniors not lapsing off their needed cognition-meds.

...regarding temp-ban/ total ban of permission to forum post..IMHO this approaches mind control/ free speech suppression...a very tough call..leave this to Oliver Kim, IMHO. A senior gent from Texas...suggested my formal occupational service sub-par, he went on to demean me ...all in his intrusion i...

I sense the: ! button works if utilized. Regarding a recent spam post to forum: 'ammo directory', good forum folk played with this spam intrusion with wit and glee, no use of the : ! flag tool I was tempted to enter in the fun by comments on need for better 'electron-guns' for our areas SEM units. R...

Hi Chris , I totally agree with our tight working distance / high magnification objectives, there is a sweet spot amount of sample fluid+ MC...to keep the slide/sample film/coverslip sandwich at very thin thickness. Often in wetmount slides, the fluid 'moats up' all around the cover slip border zone...

Thanks, mintakax, for a great encounter..is the illumination method a type of phase-contrast? Please speak a bit on this illumination method you used. thanls, Charlie guevara

It is certainly a desmid species, I'd bet (???) a toy microscope on this...heh, heh. Charlie guevara

Thanks Chris for this excellent MC thread, posts quite thoughtful and specific for my needs. Vance Tartar in his 1961 text on Stentor species opines..different protozoa have different sensitivities to MC immersion, but Vance uses his MC solutions no more than 2 months, than makes fresh batch, Vance ...

Welcome, rob. I too have a closet full of tiny student---toy monoc scopes like you share image of. Your more substantial scope seems a great 'work horse stand'. I note you actually imaged forum member 75RR's avatar...perhaps it is out of focus more than empty magnified desmid? Thanks for the greetin...

Thanks for sharing this beautiful , and microscopically classic historic organism in your current posting, Chris. Dark field illumination of this organism works best for me. wonderful encounter you share...I hope you can keep a population of these hydras. Charlie guevara

With bow hunting season now well underway , with gun season starting...I sense these eight (8) finger nail clams are all going into my artificial stream. I will return to the protists in our tractor-rut collection samples. Thanks for looking, Charlie Guevara, finger lakes/US

Ahhh, clearly with hind sight/ 20-20 vision...doggie and I should have hiked to the tractor ruts with a metal or plastic mesh-screen..and sifted bottom muds right there at the collection site...ahhh. I have mud splashes on my outdoor picnic table, I collected only eight ( 8) finger-nail clams for my...

Hi 75RR, we moved to fingerlakes/NY from down state, had an unfenced (!!!!???) 38'x18'x10' deep outdoor inground pool located on a hill next to our mature/unthined/unmanaged wood lot on our new home. I converted this pool to a pond stocked with native fish/native plantings, I channeled a stream adja...

The hard part for me is to stop enjoying the microscopy views of these field samples, enchanting to see the high numbers of euglena protists, and those elegant desmids, the near monoculture of a Spirogyra species, and a specific type of amoeba...the tractor ruts are such a microscopy treat. Like a f...

Hi all, the encounter with a finger-nail clam in the open field tractor ruts has good doggie and I back to collect mainly the mud sediments in those flooded field ruts. My intent is to try and collect a few more of these dainty freshwater clams, to stock my artificial stream with these hardy mollusc...

Notable to me from circa 1950 textbooks, desmids indeed flourish on open moist soils...I enjoyed these brilliant crop field desmids, please enjoy these with me. Ah yes, a large ciliate, 'new to me' encountered in these tractor ruts. Plenty of time, now that I imaged captured these ciliates, to 'look...

We are charmed by these brown hydras: Hydra oligactis species...Anton L. described this hydra species in Netherlands.

Both these finger-nail clams and copepods...active in October'19 suggest these hardy meiofauna flourish/thrive year round if liquid waters are in their habitat. I have collected these same organisms under thick ice in dead of winter at this crop fields valley floor. For it's wonderful to think that ...

Hi 75RR, this specific area of the deep sloped cropfield always seeps surface waters down to the drainage channel at bottom of this land...the bottom I guess is termed the 'valley floor'. In dead of winter with weeks/month or so of below freezing temps...there is liquid water under thick ice cover o...

IMG_1942.JPG IMG_1996.JPG Sadly, numerous copepod water fleas were evident in scanning the sample in shallow pyrex dish, but these water fleas were quite agile in avoiding my fast-action collection eye-dropper. Technique is everything...I simply did not have the patience to disrupt the water sample...

Prior to this years chance tractor rutting, this specific area of vernal surface water flow down slope to the valley bottom drainage area was always a seep of less than one inch (? 2.53 cm?) depth...a near 'film of surface waters' which never hosted the field markers of rich meiofauna and protists. ...