MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

KurtM wrote:I agree, very nicely done video. And yes, the critter does appear to ... have a splitting headache ... if you ask me (sorry, had to say it).

PS: Youtube videos are always served with a mute button on the side. Just sayin'.

Because there is a pond behind my house with snails I'm going to take a peak later this summer and see if I can find any fluke larva in it. If I do you'll all know!

Not too long ago I posted a photo of a blood fluke larva; actually, the initial hatching stage or the miracidia stage. This photo is of the female adult; in this case without her attached male counterpart. One of the interesting things about this species of fluke is there are both male and female ad...

Again, thanks for all the info! I think I was planning on doing something similar actually. However, originally I was going to have cherry shrimp, which would require a heater and filtration. If I make it solely for algae and protists then I'll forego the heater and filter. This is all part of the d...

I have photos of adults from human liver infestation... the heads are like a snails... the thinner nozzle-like part coming off of the plumper body. they can get pretty big - more than an inch. I don't know anything about this stage of the game though, or even for sure if it is the same beast, but i...

aha thanks Pat! Have you tried any GUF (filters)? They can create some really unique and stunning images very very close to DIC! $10, a trip to staples and an afternoon spent cutting out shapes and you all set! They're super fun to play around with! The aquarium was a great little project! The tank...

I think that's a really great image! I really do like the DIC images; I can't do them myself so I'll live vicariously through you and others! I also like your aquarium -- I'm in the process of setting one up but when I say a process it really means months of thinking about it before I actually do an...

einman wrote:Very Nice Karl!!

I don't think I've ever envisioned a work area as neat and clean as Karl's. I think he's making us all look bad!

DSCN9581 b-002.jpg I have been watching the nymph for a couple of months, wondering what it was eating. I hoped it would wait until spring to emerge, but no such luck... he is flying around the house now, no doubt searching for a meal. I'm sure he'll end up as a cat snack very soon. CE How very coo...

Oh this is an alarming thread for me. Not long ago I put an 8 ft. table into my front from for one of my computers and it's large disk array. Other things began populating it, and now it's the microscope, and all that goes with it. Now I will have to put up another 8 ft. table for that, and find a ...

Also, I've seen what you've named microschmutz begonea before as well. I don't know what they are; a ciliate of some ilk. I photographed them hanging out with a rotifer sweeping up bacteria and having a very nice feast. If you can catch them feeding you'll find getting photos of them is a whole lot ...

That does it! As soon as it thaws out I'm going to gather lichens and go hunting for water bears! I've only found one so far but I'm quite certain there are more out there.

Best thread ever!

Nance wrote:fascinating... is the head the thinner end?

You know -- I'm not completely sure. I think its actually the wider end but I could certainly be mistaken (it's happened before once or twice). You can see the cilia if you look closely as well. Nasty beasties these guys.

Aren't they cute? They grow up so fast! Well, not so much. These images are both of the stage of the parasite when it first hatches from the egg in a pond and they go looking for a nice home in a snail. At this point they aren't infectious to people, but they soon will be. I find the life cycle of p...

One other thing to consider is wether or not the USB port powers itself off. Because this seems to be happening when you're using it probably isn't a thing, but with some systems (I don't know about Macs) the USB ports will be powered off to save power. On a Windows system you can go into some deepl...

It is so awesome you were able to find water bears so easily and get some great photos and videos of them. So far I've managed to find one -- I need to start looking a bit more I should think! Thanks for sharing these images -- I look forward to seeing more.

Hey all, I thought I'd bump this thread and ask again. I've found a couple sources for slides or various pathogens; there's Triarch Inc. in Wisconsin who make some very nice slides and another company in Germany -- Lieder that has a huge selection. A bit more expensive and I haven't yet bought any f...

Thanks for the positive feedback -- I'm happy you liked it. I wasn't sure what I was getting at first; it didn't look like much. But when the processing was done in Photoshop it just sort popped into existence and I thought it was pretty cool. Stacking doesn't always work, so I was quite happy that ...

Here is a photo I took of a flea using 13 stacked images in darkfield. You can really see the internal structure which I find quite interesting. This is a rat flea, so I suppose he'd be the one to carry bubonic plague back in the day. This was from a slide I bought from Triarch Inc. in Racine, Wisco...

Interesting. Does the darkfield has mask the two orange-colored "eyes"? "my" rotifers in brightfield sported such "eyes". I'm really not sure. I do have some still images posted here of the same rotifers taken using bright field. I don't recall seeing eyes on them but I could have easily overlooked...

JimT wrote:Quite a herd and quite a nice video. How did you get the colours?

I didn't do anything special as far as the colors go -- This is how my microscope saw the scene. I'm not sure why they are colored the way they are but that is actually how I saw them in darkfield.

Revised version: As I hope I made clear; [in common with most of mankind] I know very little about the rotifers . However: If [as seems very likely] the object is not a testis, then it does surprise me that it is so clearly visible in just two of the individuals. Is this just an optical anomaly? .....

Those are simply amazing photos! I love the colors and textures. And, not having a coffee maker, I would never think to look at such a thing. Part of interesting microscopy, I think, is getting the crazy idea to look at something you never would normally.

Thanks for posting these!

All right -- This is it. I thank you all for putting up with my rotifer obsession of late. I promise I'll get better, or seek therapy if I don't. This video was shot using brightfield with magnifications of 40x and 100x (plan 4x/.1 and plan 10x/.45). As usual they were photographed using my ever so ...

Here is a video I made of the rotifers I discovered in my birdbath. This one was shot using a Plan 10x .25 objective, darkfield lighting, a Nikon d810 dslr and processed in Adobe Premier CC. I'm still learning pretty much everything about Premier so I think the video could be improved once I learn m...

Hey -- I've got a question concerning rotifer physiology. I noticed a couple of the rotifers in the "herd" photo have a round thingy of some sort in the second or third posterior segment. Does anyone know what that is? Thanks! . Pat, What I know about rotifers could be writ large on a postage stamp...

Hey -- I've got a question concerning rotifer physiology. I noticed a couple of the rotifers in the "herd" photo have a round thingy of some sort in the second or third posterior segment. Does anyone know what that is? Thanks! Found out in a book I have -- I'm pretty sure those round thingies are t...

Hey -- I've got a question concerning rotifer physiology. I noticed a couple of the rotifers in the "herd" photo have a round thingy of some sort in the second or third posterior segment. Does anyone know what that is?

Thanks!

More rotifers from the half frozen birdbath. There is an unbelievably high number of these guys in there -- I had no idea their population could be so concentrated. Anyway, here are a few more photos I took yesterday of them. I've been having a lot of fun watching them and actually seeing some form ...

mrsonchus wrote:Hi Pat - good to have you back! Nice image too!