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Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium
Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2022 6:58 pm
by Wes
Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium
Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2022 7:09 pm
by WWWW
Hello,
what a special an unknown organisms are they.
Beautiful photos !!
Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium
Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2022 7:34 pm
by Javier
Wow, those are very impressive images, Wes. Are you using your usual equipment your did you make an upgrade?
Do you know the ID of the oval ciliate after the pigmented Hypotrich? Also, is the purple thing sulfur bacteria?
Thanks for sharing!
Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium
Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2022 7:59 pm
by DonSchaeffer
I've never seen better images! Beautiful.
Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium
Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2022 8:23 pm
by Wes
Thank you all for the comments and interest.
Javier wrote: ↑Tue Sep 27, 2022 7:34 pm
Are you using your usual equipment your did you make an upgrade?
Usual equipment, but I did get a DIC prism that works well with my ancient 25x planapo and used that for some of the images.
Javier wrote: ↑Tue Sep 27, 2022 7:34 pm
Do you know the ID of the oval ciliate after the pigmented Hypotrich? Also, is the purple thing sulfur bacteria?
Honestly I have no idea what the oval ciliate is, frankly I'm not sure if its even a protists, could be the larval stage of something. The round object in its right side could be a Müller vesicle or a statolith. I've been entertaining the idea of isolating such unusual things under a stereomicroscope to amplify and sequence its ribosomal genes for a more reliable ID... maybe some day I will give this a try. As for the purple things... well its purple and its bacteria but beyond that I cannot speculate much (maybe some sort of rhodopsin-containing photosynthetic bacteria). I am really unfamiliar with marine life (which makes it way more exciting).
Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium
Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2022 8:31 pm
by ImperatorRex
Hi Wes,
great series of photos!
The Planapo 25x is also my favorite Zeiss Objective, it makes a difference!
Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium
Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2022 9:40 pm
by Dennis
I knew it was going to be good. But not that good!!!!!!
-Dennis
Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium
Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2022 9:40 pm
by Javier
Wes wrote: ↑Tue Sep 27, 2022 8:23 pm
Thank you all for the comments and interest.
Javier wrote: ↑Tue Sep 27, 2022 7:34 pm
Are you using your usual equipment your did you make an upgrade?
Usual equipment, but I did get a DIC prism that works well with my ancient 25x planapo and used that for some of the images.
Javier wrote: ↑Tue Sep 27, 2022 7:34 pm
Do you know the ID of the oval ciliate after the pigmented Hypotrich? Also, is the purple thing sulfur bacteria?
Honestly I have no idea what the oval ciliate is, frankly I'm not sure if its even a protists, could be the larval stage of something. The round object in its right side could be a Müller vesicle or a statolith. I've been entertaining the idea of isolating such unusual things under a stereomicroscope to amplify and sequence its ribosomal genes for a more reliable ID... maybe some day I will give this a try. As for the purple things... well its purple and its bacteria but beyond that I cannot speculate much (maybe some sort of rhodopsin-containing photosynthetic bacteria). I am really unfamiliar with marine life (which makes it way more exciting).
Interesting! I had the idea Müller vesicles were only present on Loxodes. The oval microorganism looks a lot like a ciliate to me with all those distinctive cilia around the cell membrane and those vacuoles. Maybe someone will chime in to clarify this.
Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium
Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2022 12:56 am
by KurtM
Very impressive images indeed! Have you sent any to the owner of the store?
Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium
Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2022 1:09 am
by Dennis
Oh that one with all the legs!
That could be in a Ray Harry Hausen production movie like "7th Voyage of Sinbad" or "Jason and the Argonauts."
Dennis
Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium
Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2022 1:28 am
by macnmotion
Absolutely beautiful images.
Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium
Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2022 9:05 am
by Adam Long
Fantastic images Wes!
The Planapo 25/0.65 is also one of my favourite objectives. It seems to play nicely with the first generation of Zeiss DIC too, though it is early days for me with trans DIC.
Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium
Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2022 8:05 pm
by Wes
Thank you all once again for the comments.
Javier wrote: ↑Tue Sep 27, 2022 9:40 pm
Wes wrote: ↑Tue Sep 27, 2022 8:23 pm
Thank you all for the comments and interest.
Javier wrote: ↑Tue Sep 27, 2022 7:34 pm
Are you using your usual equipment your did you make an upgrade?
Usual equipment, but I did get a DIC prism that works well with my ancient 25x planapo and used that for some of the images.
Javier wrote: ↑Tue Sep 27, 2022 7:34 pm
Do you know the ID of the oval ciliate after the pigmented Hypotrich? Also, is the purple thing sulfur bacteria?
Honestly I have no idea what the oval ciliate is, frankly I'm not sure if its even a protists, could be the larval stage of something. The round object in its right side could be a Müller vesicle or a statolith. I've been entertaining the idea of isolating such unusual things under a stereomicroscope to amplify and sequence its ribosomal genes for a more reliable ID... maybe some day I will give this a try. As for the purple things... well its purple and its bacteria but beyond that I cannot speculate much (maybe some sort of rhodopsin-containing photosynthetic bacteria). I am really unfamiliar with marine life (which makes it way more exciting).
Interesting! I had the idea Müller vesicles were only present on Loxodes. The oval microorganism looks a lot like a ciliate to me with all those distinctive cilia around the cell membrane and those vacuoles. Maybe someone will chime in to clarify this.
On another forum it was pointed out to me that the round structure is in fact a statolith likely belonging to a member of
Turbellaria or
Acoelomorpha, not a protist at all.
KurtM wrote: ↑Wed Sep 28, 2022 12:56 am
Very impressive images indeed! Have you sent any to the owner of the store?
Hi Kurt, thank you for the comment and yes I sent the images to the store owner who was fascinated by the invisible biology of their aquarium.
Adam Long wrote: ↑Wed Sep 28, 2022 9:05 am
Fantastic images Wes!
The Planapo 25/0.65 is also one of my favourite objectives. It seems to play nicely with the first generation of Zeiss DIC too, though it is early days for me with trans DIC.
I fine lens indeed, what sort of trans DIC combination have you come up with?
Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium
Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2022 10:34 pm
by zufar
Magnificent!
Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium
Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2022 11:36 pm
by Bruce Taylor
Marvellous images!
The first ciliate is in the family Strombidiidae (a very abundant group, in salt water).
The pigmented fellow is a species of Pseudokeronopsis (e.g. P. rubra)
As you already know, the next ciliated creature is not a ciliate at all, but an acoel (acoelomorph) flatworm, equipped with a statocyst
Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium
Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2022 12:43 am
by Javier
Bruce Taylor wrote: ↑Wed Sep 28, 2022 11:36 pm
Marvellous images!
The first ciliate is in the family Strombidiidae (a very abundant group, in salt water).
The pigmented fellow is a species of
Pseudokeronopsis (e.g.
P. rubra)
As you already know, the next ciliated creature is not a ciliate at all, but an acoel (acoelomorph) flatworm, equipped with a statocyst
Wow, flat worm! And just when I thought I knew a little about microorganisms...
Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium
Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2022 12:46 am
by Javier
May I ask how do you realize it isn't a ciliate? I see cilia, vacuoles, oval body. What is the clue to know this is a micro animal instead of a single celled organism?
Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium
Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2022 12:48 am
by Greg Howald
You did a beautiful job. Those photos speak volumes.
I hope you will share them with the guy who gave you the samples.
Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium
Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2022 12:33 pm
by Adam Long
I fine lens indeed, what sort of trans DIC combination have you come up with?
Just this week I received a condenser and slider of the first generation. The parts are a little beaten up but the results are great so far, despite not using the correct objectives.
Previously I did play around a little with using epi dic objectives and inko sliders for both condenser and objective. I got some promising results but it would really require machining an adaptor to allow centering the condenser objective, no need now!
Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium
Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2022 8:15 pm
by Bruce Taylor
Javier wrote: ↑Thu Sep 29, 2022 12:46 am
May I ask how do you realize it isn't a ciliate? I see cilia, vacuoles, oval body. What is the clue to know this is a micro animal instead of a single celled organism?
Yes, acoelomorphs certainly can look like ciliates. They even have digestive vacuoles, instead of a gut. Very odd creatures!
In this case, the statocyst--that single round organ on the centerline of the cell, in the anterior--is a pretty strong clue. Also, those shaggy spindle-shaped organs on its body do not resemble ciliate extrusomes or other organelles. I don't know much about worms, but I think these could be "rhabdoids" (whatever those might be
). The marine habitat is typical for acoelomorphs, as far as I know.
Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium
Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2022 6:29 pm
by Wes
Bruce Taylor wrote: ↑Wed Sep 28, 2022 11:36 pm
Marvellous images!
The first ciliate is in the family Strombidiidae (a very abundant group, in salt water).
The pigmented fellow is a species of
Pseudokeronopsis (e.g.
P. rubra)
As you already know, the next ciliated creature is not a ciliate at all, but an acoel (acoelomorph) flatworm, equipped with a statocyst
I was hoping you would pop by and drop some IDs, thanks a lot!
Greg Howald wrote: ↑Thu Sep 29, 2022 12:48 am
I hope you will share them with the guy who gave you the samples.
I did
Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium
Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2022 2:23 am
by Javier
Bruce Taylor wrote: ↑Thu Sep 29, 2022 8:15 pm
Javier wrote: ↑Thu Sep 29, 2022 12:46 am
May I ask how do you realize it isn't a ciliate? I see cilia, vacuoles, oval body. What is the clue to know this is a micro animal instead of a single celled organism?
Yes, acoelomorphs certainly can look like ciliates. They even have digestive vacuoles, instead of a gut. Very odd creatures!
In this case, the statocyst--that single round organ on the centerline of the cell, in the anterior--is a pretty strong clue. Also, those shaggy spindle-shaped organs on its body do not resemble ciliate extrusomes or other organelles. I don't know much about worms, but I think these could be "rhabdoids" (whatever those might be
). The marine habitat is typical for acoelomorphs, as far as I know.
Thank you!
