Crayfish and Cleaning Worms - pretty neat to discover

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Quarterbore
Posts: 13
Joined: Sun Sep 03, 2017 1:30 am

Crayfish and Cleaning Worms - pretty neat to discover

#1 Post by Quarterbore » Tue Sep 19, 2017 2:07 am

I am a scout leader for the Cub Scouts and we did a pretty short creek walk and using hand held nets and a kick net we managed to catch a very good variety of fish, Crayfish, and smaller invertebrates. In our area we are struggling to control the Rusty Ctayfish so we let everything else go but the Rusty Crayfish which have a short time left.

What was really neat though I have a pair of very modest Swift Stereo Eighty Disecting Microscopes (10x/20x) and I had never looked at crayfish under the disecting scope before. The crayfish had eggs all over their underside and a number of larvae crawling around the crayfish. I really wish I had a camera setup on a disecting scope now!

I just thought I would share as these eggs and worms are not really microscopic but darn to see them with the naked eye is hard but under 10x and especially uner 20x you discover things you never expected!

I need to either buy a trinocular disecting scope or figure out how to add a camera via one of my eyepieces! The Sterio Eighty uses threaded eyepieces so this could be tricky but likely worth the effort!

JimT
Posts: 3247
Joined: Fri Oct 24, 2014 1:57 pm

Re: Crayfish and Cleaning Worms - pretty neat to discover

#2 Post by JimT » Tue Sep 19, 2017 2:21 am

Quarterbore, where I am from they are crawfish and boiled up right they are delicious.

For photos you can start with afocal (look it up). Depending on your camera (a phone is a good way to start) hold it up to one of the eyepieces and take the photo. A DSLR will likely need a tripod. Experiment a bit and good luck.

Quarterbore
Posts: 13
Joined: Sun Sep 03, 2017 1:30 am

Re: Crayfish and Cleaning Worms - pretty neat to discover

#3 Post by Quarterbore » Tue Sep 19, 2017 1:51 pm

Actually, here in SE Pennsylvania we are having problems with Rusty Crayfish as they have overwhelmed our water ecosystems. They just grow fast and tolerate very high population densities so they are in huge numbers and eat everything.

So, we have been catching them by the hundreds, we caught over 400 this summer and could be up over 500. We did discover that they are good eating like you said so we euthanized the small ones and cook and eat the bigger ones.

Last night was the first time I looked at one under the scope and was surprised to find a little ecosystem on the crayfish themselves!

As for my photo issue, I spent a lot of time looking and decided to bite the bullet and bought a Olympus SZ4045 with the trinocular head and I bought the SZ-PT photo tube. It cost me dearly but I have everything above that to mount to my Canon EOS as I spent the other money on that to photograph with my Phase Contrast CHT including the pay a lot once and cry once cost of a new 1.67x NFT lens which is supposed to be perfect for this Sterio scope as well ($600 for the lens).

Once I get everything, I can use the Canon Live View to show what we find on a nice sized monitor as opposed to 30-kids and adults trying to look into two stereo scopes and my microscope.

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