MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

A nice start. This is a colpodid ciliate (the best known of which are Colpoda , but now there are some other very similar members of the family, depending on the taxonomy you follow). They're very typical of samples with soil or vegetation that dry out from time to time, being adapted to form protec...

Not to repeat the other threads too much, but for the record: I always put mine back when I'm done unless there is a special reason not to, as in a case where the specimens proved of actual scientific interest. Otherwise this is a hobby; I'm observing them for pleasure, and it certainly doesn't give...

Just out of curiosity, any reason to single out bacteria? The case I know for sure of an amateur discovering a new species, albeit still to be described in full, is an amoeba found by Bruce Taylor . And for anyone here inclined to say "sure, but he's barely an amateur", I've also come relatively clo...

Extremely neat! It is indeed a bdelloid rotifer; this one looks like Rotaria, which usually have a distinctive pair of eyes on the rostrum, visible here around 1:44. The other types with live birth are mostly Dissotrocha and Embata with eyes on the neck.

This is a baby copepod. It's called a nauplius larva; the three pairs of appendages are ultimately going to turn into the antennae and mandibles, with the rest of the head and body appearing in later moults.

They're not as evident here as in some, but at times like 1:22 you can see the action of the jaws in the throat, which are distinctive to rotifers and their immediate relatives. There are a lot of soft-bodied types with this basic form. This one is nicely identified by the peculiar spine between its...

As everyone said, this is very much a Stentor . Besides the shape, your video gives a good look at how the actual cilia work – there is a series of membranelles that spiral clockwise into the mouth, plus rows of uniform cilia over the rest of the cell. Peritrichs like Vorticella have a few turns of ...

I am far from an expert, but for what it is worth, I've seen plentiful spirilla in standing puddles over old grass. The Prokaryotes notes at least Spirillum and Aquaspirillum as most common in various stagnant habitats, including hay infusions, so those should be a better place to start. They also n...

Like janvangastel says, this is a rotifer, and in particular one of the bdelloids – the two ciliated 'wheels' that sweep food into the mouth are very characteristic. You can also see this one has two red spots on the neck, which are simple eyes; I think it is likely a Philodina but don't know enough...

Long but that's what it takes to show the process; good on you to follow it the whole way. For the record, this is not Paramecium but a hypotrich (the same group as Stylonychia , Oxytricha , Urostyla , and many others). You can most prominently see the oral membranelles at the front end, and then af...

Some time ago there was a news story where someone had built a sling to help their sick goldfish recover. Some people I talked to thought that was delightful; others (all ones I know in person, mind, not online randoms) would scoff and point out how the resources could have been used for more import...

It is not very much to go on – there are not many things that can be identified without an image or even knowing the shape. If they are indeed running , that is to say crawling quickly along surfaces rather than just swimming about, you might compare hypotrich ciliates ( e.g. Oxytricha , Tachysoma ,...

To narrow it down more, this is the oligochaete Chaetogaster, which are distinctive in only having hook-like ventral setae. The mouth and head look normal enough to me, but note they are actually the end that points down in the video, not the one you zoom in on.

Just for the record, my understanding is that Synhymeniida were moved out of Nassophorea based on RNA trees like in Gong et al. , 2009 . But they note that Nassulopsis are different from the others in having polykinetids, and Sola et al. thought they actually belong with the Nassulida. Lynn left the...

Bruce generally knows more about ciliate taxonomy than I do, but that seems peculiar for Nassulopsis . The figures I have seen are typically relatively slender, with multiple contractile vacuoles along the side, which even though this is a good video are not evident to me here. What keeps this from ...

It's interesting how people here are concerned about not harming creatures that they observe. I've never heard scientists mention this. Well, here you are: “You should sacrifice bugs only if you have a scientific reason for doing so.” –Thomas Eisner, called the father of chemical ecology, et al. Co...

It looks like an egg; compare for instance some photos of a Lecane egg at plingfactory. I'm not certain but it it's already chewing, it might be mostly developed and getting ready to hatch out.

Agreed, very nice. Especially in the close-ups you can see the close association of the flagellum/cilium and nucleus, which is characteristic for the genus. There are definitely some bacteria swimming around, but I'm not sure that they have anything to do with the Mastigamoeba.

The first one is definitely a ciliate. It's not a Paramecium , which have a prominent oral groove, but I'm not sure I can make out a mouth well enough to guess what it is instead. Note that while it might be less natural looking, often brightfield gives you better detail for recognizing them. The se...

Very nice detail on the cell surface. You don't suppose the filament is a diatom? Not that it changes much, but while most chlorophyll c-containing algae get their golden colour from fucoxanthin, Prorocentrum and other dinoflagellates typically have their own unique carotenoid peridinin. The excepti...

The spine-like toe on a short base marks this as a Lecane, which include former Monostyla, and the separation along the side of the lorica is also typical. Different species have either one or two toes. They do get confused with Lepadella a lot on-line, so good you noticed the difference!

Nonetheless, I see these creatures as other beings and if I am going to continue with this I want to make sure that I minimize the harm. I am using slides that have indents, rinsing and returning samples to where I obtained them and using an LED illumination source. Any other advice or comments reg...

This looks like Actinosphaerium 's little cousin Actinophrys . They don't conjugate; they actually have an odd sexual process where one divides within a cyst and then fuses back together again, called autogamy, shuffling genes without the reproduction part. But they do often capture food as small gr...

Very nice, Wes. For the record, this looks like some type of Amphora, which characteristically have lunate valves tilted to the same side of the cell; the empty band in the middle is the girdle.

These are definitely mites, though presumably not dust mites in particular. Identification of different types is not as easy; you could for instance compare this key. In any case mites are not unusual in aquarium samples, especially around plants or algae, which provide both shelter and food.

Neat find. As 75RR's link says, many tardigrades lay their eggs inside a moult; that's what you have here. The little stub appendages confirm it came from a tardigrade, but the reason the interior is so empty is that the mother is not here. There are only the five new ones she has left behind.

This looks like a Chaetogaster to me. They have hook-like ventral setae, but are missing the dorsal setae typical of other little oligochaetes.

How large was this? Since it does not seem to have a distinct layer of ectoplasm, just the one bulging water expulsion vesicle, I think this is likely to be Actinosphaerium 's little cousin Actinophrys . The latter are mostly 30-100 µm, not counting the axopodia, and the former usually at least twic...

This is Synura, a type of golden algae that are common in spring and apparently under ice in winter.

I agree that it looks like something that has detached, but not a peritrich like Vorticella . They have much finer oral cilia than the membranelles seen here, and mobile stages typically have one ring of conspicuous body cilia. It can be helpful to know where such things are from and how large they ...