MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

So another intesting find is what I think is a Chlorohyta algae. I based this on image and color of hte specimin. Although I have to admit I have only seen two examples of these. The water they came from does not show green algae, nor did it appear to be growing in any great abundance in the sample I have - since as I have seen only two of them.

Question: The temps here are relatively low for our area (N Fla) sometimes dropping down to near freezing. Can this case a slowing down of protist life? Are some of the species simply biding there time? I see Rotifers and cilliates and of course in my ohter post Cyclops nymph and adults. But the algaes certainly don't seem to be doing a bang up business. At least not in this retention pond I went to.

Hi FLReef

The name of the species is Micrasterias radiosa, an it belongs to Chlorophyta: Zygnematales.
Low temp always slow thing down.

Rylander

Rylander wrote:Hi FLReef

The name of the species is Micrasterias radiosa, an it belongs to Chlorophyta: Zygnematales.
Low temp always slow thing down.

Rylander

TY VM for the reply. Interesting with the identification, I looked it up and other than the level of mass detail the image was exactly that! TY.

I presumed it was the weather since the samples I had seemed pretty low in life. I have been spoiled sampling my freshwater tank kept at a nice warm 77! lots of stuff in there I never expected to see. Mostly imported (I presume) on the live plants I ordered that came from a grower. My expectation is the plants were raised in an outdoor pond of some sort which brought in the extras.

Nice find. It has a beautify structure to it, what magnification were you using?

coominya wrote:Nice find. It has a beautify structure to it, what magnification were you using?

One of the things I'm trying to work on is documenting what I'm taking and at what magnification. I received a new MU300 camera for christmas to work better with my T490 trinocular port. I have gone through the steps to calculate the magnification on-screen and have added a watermark of sizing/magnifications. Now I just have to remember to adjust the software before taking a picture.

This image was done via a MD35 on the trinocular port so I'm not 100% certain of the magnification factor shown. I am "estimating" it as about 40% increase over the visual - so that would make this close to 140-160x over actual.

In my three pond water samples (all from the same general pond but collected differently) I have only seen two of these.