Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium

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Wes
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Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium

#1 Post by Wes » Tue Sep 27, 2022 6:58 pm

I have always wanted to but never had the opportunity to study marine microscopic life. I had the idea of simply walking into a sea water aquarium store and asking for a small sample. The owner of the store was very intrigued by my request and picked material from 3 different aquariums.

Here I present to you my findings from the salt water aquarium.

The bacteria, algae and diatoms

Image
(Red algae)

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image


The protists

Image

Image

Image
(Not at all sure what this is)


The worms

Image

Image

Image

Image

Best regards,
Wes
Zeiss Photomicroscope III BF/DF/Pol/Ph/DIC/FL/Jamin-Lebedeff
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WWWW
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Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium

#2 Post by WWWW » Tue Sep 27, 2022 7:09 pm

Hello,

what a special an unknown organisms are they.
Beautiful photos !!

Javier
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Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium

#3 Post by Javier » Tue Sep 27, 2022 7:34 pm

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!

DonSchaeffer
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Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium

#4 Post by DonSchaeffer » Tue Sep 27, 2022 7:59 pm

I've never seen better images! Beautiful.

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Wes
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Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium

#5 Post by Wes » 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).
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ImperatorRex
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Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium

#6 Post by ImperatorRex » Tue Sep 27, 2022 8:31 pm

Hi Wes,
great series of photos!
The Planapo 25x is also my favorite Zeiss Objective, it makes a difference!

Dennis
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Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium

#7 Post by Dennis » Tue Sep 27, 2022 9:40 pm

I knew it was going to be good. But not that good!!!!!!
-Dennis

Javier
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Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium

#8 Post by Javier » 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.

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Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium

#9 Post by KurtM » Wed Sep 28, 2022 12:56 am

Very impressive images indeed! Have you sent any to the owner of the store?
Cheers,
Kurt Maurer
League City, Texas
email: ngc704(at)gmail(dot)com
https://www.flickr.com/photos/67904872@ ... 912223623/

Dennis
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Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium

#10 Post by Dennis » Wed Sep 28, 2022 1:09 am

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

macnmotion
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Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium

#11 Post by macnmotion » Wed Sep 28, 2022 1:28 am

Absolutely beautiful images.

Adam Long
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Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium

#12 Post by Adam Long » 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.

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Wes
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Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium

#13 Post by Wes » Wed Sep 28, 2022 8:05 pm

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?
Zeiss Photomicroscope III BF/DF/Pol/Ph/DIC/FL/Jamin-Lebedeff
Youtube channel

zufar
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Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium

#14 Post by zufar » Wed Sep 28, 2022 10:34 pm

Magnificent!

Bruce Taylor
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Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium

#15 Post by Bruce Taylor » 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

Javier
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Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium

#16 Post by Javier » Thu Sep 29, 2022 12:43 am

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... :lol:

Javier
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Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium

#17 Post by Javier » 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?

Greg Howald
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Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium

#18 Post by Greg Howald » Thu Sep 29, 2022 12:48 am

You did a beautiful job. Those photos speak volumes.
I hope you will share them with the guy who gave you the samples.

Adam Long
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Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium

#19 Post by Adam Long » Thu Sep 29, 2022 12:33 pm

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!

Bruce Taylor
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Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium

#20 Post by Bruce Taylor » 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 :D). The marine habitat is typical for acoelomorphs, as far as I know.

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Wes
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Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium

#21 Post by Wes » Sun Oct 02, 2022 6:29 pm

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 :)
Zeiss Photomicroscope III BF/DF/Pol/Ph/DIC/FL/Jamin-Lebedeff
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Javier
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Re: Microscopic life in a sea water aquarium

#22 Post by Javier » Mon Oct 03, 2022 2:23 am

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 :D). The marine habitat is typical for acoelomorphs, as far as I know.
Thank you!

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