Some More Paramecium

[JimT]

The jar that I added grass about a week and a half ago is teaming with these guys. Here are two together that are pretty much at the same DOF - unusual

Canon 60D with 20x obj. with DIY DIC filter. The second is the same image inverted. The black "things" that show up white in the second image are the birefringent particles under polarized light.

[Naphthalene]

Hello, JimT!

Nice Paramecium couple Seems they prefer to roam together )

[gekko]

Excellent. How did you know that the spots were birefringent? Did you also observe them under polarized light?

[JimT]

Thanks Naphthalene and Gekko. Yes I did observe some paramecium with and without polarized filters.

[mrsonchus]

These are great - how would one go about mounting them on a permanent slide? It would be fantastic to start a collection that could be viewed whenever one felt like it! I'll have a look at some techniques for these critters and see what's involved...
Lovely clear images and really interesting subject, again masses of detail! I wonder if they can be stained?
Hmmm... food for thought - I bet Walter-D knew how to do it, may be worth a look at his work again.

Thanks for the post.

[JimT]

Mrsonchus, thank you. I also want to try staining the paramecia to enhance the nucleus. I was going to try a tiny dab of iodine because that's what I use for plant cells. Probably will not work but I will at least give it a try.

Have no idea how to permanently mount them and probably much more effort than I want to do.

Found a couple of sites on staining the critters. The first is titled:

A Simple Stain for the Nuclei of Paramecium

Here is the site and it does not look simple to me!

http://www.hope.edu/academic/biology/me ... radipp.htm

There are other sites which one can find but they all looked too complicated for me.

Good luck

[vasselle]

Bonjour
Very nice.
Cordialement seb

[mrsonchus]

Hi Jim, yes I see what you mean about the 'Dippel-Stain' method - looks awfully tricky and long-winded. I wonder if it's worth just letting them 'swim-about' (please excuse my ignorance, it's all I could think of! ) in a bit of say methylene-blue (available as a goldfish-remedy) or perhaps staining whatever they ingest? They're beautiful and fascinating creatures that's for certain.
Interesting little blighters!

[mrsonchus]

Hi, I think the late-great Walter D may have a relatively easy mounting-method or two that may be suitable for parameciums and similar organisms - maybe. if I get a chance I might have a quick go at it and see what happens, I'll need to find some critters first though, maybe a visit to our Daughter's pond would help?
Here's Walter's article;
http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/ind ... ount2.html
Looks promising.. his 'GALA 20/GALA 60' fixatives may be good to try...

[JimT]

Thanks.