MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

I think this is a case where a Stylonychia is bitten by a Coleps. Can someone please confirm? While in the process of recording this ciliate's contractile vacuole, a Coleps all of a sudden appears out of nowhere and takes a byte. Surprisingly, instead of continuing the attack, the Coleps vanishes. 0...

Nicely done! Congratulations and thanks for sharing.

Very impressive! I've never noticed that I could diminish the illumination enough to get a paramecium to stop moving. I have come across some species of paramecium that are more given to bouts of inactivity; that is, even though most in the water drop are bustling about, an individual will sudden s...

IanW wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 06, 2021 5:34 pm

Certainly an impressive short film using oblique illumination - well done!

Thanks for the feedback, IanW!

smollerthings wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 05, 2021 11:02 am

Great results, which magnification were you at?

Hi smollerthings,
Eyepiece: 10X
Objective: 40X
Phone Camera: 2X

I use the free "Open Camera" app to control my phone's camera.

Wonderful image. Is there a specific technique you can describe? Do you get results like this consistently? Hi Don, Yes, the results are very repeatable, with some specimens giving better results than others. I'll try to describe the technique, but let me know if a picture is better: a) Condenser p...

Oh... My apologies. I made the correction just now. I'll blame it on poor eyesight and sleep deprivation

Very nice image! Impressive. One question though. How'd you get that Paramecium to sit still? :) Thanks, Harold. I don't know how true this is across different samples, but these Paramecia were very sensitive to the light intensity. Below a certain light level, they slowed down their activity signi...

I'm happy to see what these less expensive microscopes are capable of these days. Even if all you have is a phone camera to record the action.

I had to keep the light levels very low, because every time that I increased the illumination the Paramecium would scatter around quickly.

I didn't know either, until I made this video and started learning more about Rotifer anatomy. Truly fascinating multicellular organisms!

https://www.earthlife.net/inverts/rotifers.html

Thanks for posting the video!

It appears that the pseudo-Vorticella is squished by the coverslip glass, which holds down the microorganism well and helps us to see great detail.
Can you give us the details of how you prepared this slide so that it is so thin without damaging the Vorticella?

I was surprised by the size of this Rotifer genus!

It's been identified as an Aeolosoma worm. Possibly Aeolosoma hemprichi.

Trying to figure out how to imbed Youtube videos...

Testing 1,2,3...

[youtube]https://youtu.be/Gsh91Qt_wQc[/youtube]

.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2W9hdzlndA

A water sample from the local pond revealed this ciliate. Magnification is 400x I tracked it all the way to the end of its life and would like to post a complete video on YouTube, but I don't know what this ciliate is called. Any help would be greatly appreciated. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9C...

Thanks. Now I'll need to find a bonafide pseudovorticella!

Amazing images. Thanks for posting!

It looks like ingested matter (food). The more transparent food vacuoles just happen to contain smaller particles. Since this is "Identification help," can you be sure it is not Pseudovorticella ? ;) From these images, I can't tell. Being brand-new to the hobby, I appreciate the question, which was...

I'm trying to identify elements of a Vorticella anatomy, but I am puzzled by the 2 round, dark features in this video snapshot. https://imgur.com/5Sksh0m They float around the entire cytoplasm and I counted up to 4 of them, as shown in the second screenshot. For lack of a better term, they appear to...

Interesting! I'll have to try that! I made some similar power LED setups for my my 380T but to use with the darkfield condenser: 10W and 3W LEDs.jpg Top one is a 10W LED on an aluminium bar, bottom a 3W just on a heatsink. Plus a variable psu though the LEDs are controlled by the constant current b...

Liked your videos. Have you tried this with something else beside pond critters? I'm wondering if the drop of water and coverslip act (along with the slide) as somewhat of a light pipe? If it also works with things like smears and dry mount slides, that could be doubly cool. Thanks, PeteM. I only t...

Being able to use higher magnification was my primary motivation. While the SW380T works well with the 4X and 10X objectives, I have not had any luck making darkfield with the 40X objective, and above. Be aware that the success of edge illumination is highly dependent on the specimen. I've had some ...

This is a cool concept-definitely deserves experimentation-this is probably a stupid idea but I’ve always wondered with this technique about painting the entire slide with white nail polish or whatever including the sides except the side being illuminated and just leave enough unpainted space in th...

Does anyone know what is that round blob that the 2 Coleps are trying to consume (bright field footage)?. Thanks I think it's probably an encysted ciliate/protozoan - unless someone else knows different? Louise Based on your tip, I've been reading about microbial cysts and that is the best classifi...

I wish I had seen this article a couple of months ago, when i first started this interesting hobby. Thank you very much for sharing.