Microscope Identification

Auto-pilot · Jan 9, 2020

Hey I have been growing Nanno for a while and have a couple of samples. I have one sample I treated with antibiotics, another that i didn't. As a result one is contaminated and one is not. I have a couple of sample videos.
Sample treated with antibiotics

Sample not treated with antibiotics

What type of bacteria is in my sample???
Here is a video from my aquarium with organisms I pulled from a coral that just experienced RTN

Just curious if anyone can give me any info on these organisms

Auto-pilot · Jan 9, 2020

Here's a video of brine shrimp!

The microscope is new, fun to mess around with

tupes · Jan 9, 2020

Sorry, I cant help in identifying but this is indeed interesting. Also wondering what kind of microscope are you using? I've been looking to purchase one but cant decided.

tupes · Jan 9, 2020

Auto-pilot said:
Here's a video of brine shrimp!

The microscope is new, fun to mess around with

This is seriously cool. Thanks for posting.

Auto-pilot · Jan 9, 2020

Here's the link to the microscope https://www.ebay.com/itm/Multiple-C...var=432289734970&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649
Not sure if I recomend it yet, I can't get to 2000x to focus

eraserhead187 · Jan 9, 2020

Cool videos, I love playing with microscopes. What you are seeing is probably some kind of protozoan or other eukaryotic organism. Unless you have a really expensive microscope capable of magnification of over 1000x, you aren't gong to be able to see any bacteria that you can differentiate very well. Even then, you will only really be able to tell its basic morphology (bacilli, cocci, spiral). You'd need access to a decent microbiology lab to isolate cultures and perform metabolic testing to figure out what it is. Isn't it so cool to look at this stuff? Now you CAN identify dinoflagellates and stuff like that with even a halfway decent microscope. There are so many things that are amazingly creepy when put under the microscope! Mites, tiny worms, they all look like terrifying aliens.

Keep playing with it and show us some other cool stuff!!

eraserhead187 · Jan 9, 2020

If you are unfortunate enough to get infestations of dinos, that microscope will be VERY useful to figuring out how to treat them!

Auto-pilot · Jan 9, 2020

eraserhead187 said:
Cool videos, I love playing with microscopes. What you are seeing is probably some kind of protozoan or other eukaryotic organism. Unless you have a really expensive microscope capable of magnification of over 1000x, you aren't gong to be able to see any bacteria that you can differentiate very well. Even then, you will only really be able to tell its basic morphology (bacilli, cocci, spiral). You'd need access to a decent chemistry lab to isolate cultures and perform metabolic testing to figure out what it is. Isn't it so cool to look at this stuff? Now you CAN identify dinoflagellates and stuff like that with even a halfway decent microscope. There are so many things that are amazingly creepy when put under the microscope! Mites, tiny worms, they all look like terrifying aliens.

Keep playing with it and show us some other cool stuff!!

Yeah my scope has a 2000X but even if i have it touching the sample glass it is just out of focus, not sure how if its the lens or user error

eraserhead187 · Jan 9, 2020

Auto-pilot said:
Yeah my scope has a 2000X but even if i have it touching the sample glass it is just out of focus, not sure how if its the lens or user error

Things are really hard to stabilize even at 1000x. I can imagine 2000x! Do you have any staining kits? You can probably get them online for a decent price. When you learn how to stain, you can figure out roughly the type of bacteria you are dealing with. You'd need an oil immersion lens (Your 1000x and 2000x lenses probably are those) but you can get some pretty good pics of bacteria with staining and oil immersion. Some of the staining processes take some practice to get right but they aren't too hard.

Fun story, I do have access to a microbiology lab and decided I wanted to figure out what was wrong with my 4 year old who was pooping out what looked like chewed up food. So yes, I took a sample, got clearance, and brought it in. Grew the sample on 4 different types of media to figure out what bacteria was the most likely to be pathogenic (Since you have LOADS of different types of bacteria in your guts that are not harmful), and then did a few different types of stains and figured out that it was probably Shigella! Everybody thought I was crazy, and maybe I am, but it was loads of fun! Turns out his symptoms were exactly what you would expect with shigella, and later learned that the health department had reported an outbreak of Shigella locally. Vindicated in my craziness

!

I can't wait to see what you come up with! My microscope is a cheap piece of crap. Yours looks nice!

As for the focus with the higher magnifications, they aren't designed to refract the light properly with just the microscope slide or water, so you need a specific kind of oil. But you can't use a slide cover, so you have to fix the sample to the slide (kill it, heat fixing, etc) and then put a drop of oil directly on it and then lower the objective directly into the oil. That will work wonders for you. That's why it pushes it out of focus, it's not supposed to be used with a lens cover. Happy hunting!!

stanleo · Jan 9, 2020

I love looking at the micro critters in my tank and taking pics and videos. I was wondering if more people like this stuff and if a section dedicated to micro fauna or microscope work in general wouldn't be a fun thing to add to the forum.

I agree those little green things running around are simple single celled protozoans. Probably several different species in there. Cool videos and thanks for the link to that microscope. I just have a digital micro camera and small hobby microscope and when my fish room is done I am going to set up a station for a good microscope and will seriously consider that one. Thanks for sharing.

Auto-pilot · Jan 9, 2020

eraserhead187 said:
Things are really hard to stabilize even at 1000x. I can imagine 2000x! Do you have any staining kits? You can probably get them online for a decent price. When you learn how to stain, you can figure out roughly the type of bacteria you are dealing with. You'd need an oil immersion lens (Your 1000x and 2000x lenses probably are those) but you can get some pretty good pics of bacteria with staining and oil immersion. Some of the staining processes take some practice to get right but they aren't too hard.

Fun story, I do have access to a microbiology lab and decided I wanted to figure out what was wrong with my 4 year old who was pooping out what looked like chewed up food. So yes, I took a sample, got clearance, and brought it in. Grew the sample on 4 different types of media to figure out what bacteria was the most likely to be pathogenic (Since you have LOADS of different types of bacteria in your guts that are not harmful), and then did a few different types of stains and figured out that it was probably Shigella! Everybody thought I was crazy, and maybe I am, but it was loads of fun! Turns out his symptoms were exactly what you would expect with shigella, and later learned that the health department had reported an outbreak of Shigella locally. Vindicated in my craziness !

I can't wait to see what you come up with! My microscope is a cheap piece of crap. Yours looks nice!

As for the focus with the higher magnifications, they aren't designed to refract the light properly with just the microscope slide or water, so you need a specific kind of oil. But you can't use a slide cover, so you have to fix the sample to the slide (kill it, heat fixing, etc) and then put a drop of oil directly on it and then lower the objective directly into the oil. That will work wonders for you. That's why it pushes it out of focus, it's not supposed to be used with a lens cover. Happy hunting!!

OK! I'll try using oil. Also I'm not sure if the magnification is exact and accurate with the microscope I have as I don't know what 2000x really looks like.