Microscopy Thread

[RobertK]

I'm really enjoying this microscopy, and restoring my 50 year old microscope. I hope I'm not posting too much here - I keep telling myself to slow it down but then I keep finding these cool things in my tank!

Tonight I found this ciliated creature in a sample from the water column. It looked like it had a bunch of flat plates of some sort stuck to its body. At first I though it must be a common ciliate that was trapped under some plate-like debris, but then I kept seeing more of them on the same slide, there were literally dozens if not hundreds of them! Here is a video at 500X:

Here's a photo of 5 more of them:

There were many more of them and they all had the same appearance. Any idea what these are?

 

[mcarroll]

I do not know what it is.

Behavior seems more barnacle like than cilliate, don't you think?

 

[RobertK]

I do not know what it is.

Behavior seems more barnacle like than cilliate, don't you think?

They did seem stationary under the cover slip so I don't know how they move about. But these were collected from the water column, using a pitcher to pour tank water through a 25 micron sieve, so I would think they must be motile.

One other observation: that sample was taken when the aquarium lights were on, and there were a large number of them all with similar appearance. I took another sample from the water column using the same collection technique a few hours later after lights off and did not see a single one of them.

 

[EnterName]

I'm really enjoying this microscopy, and restoring my 50 year old microscope. I hope I'm not posting too much here - I keep telling myself to slow it down but then I keep finding these cool things in my tank!

Tonight I found this ciliated creature in a sample from the water column. It looked like it had a bunch of flat plates of some sort stuck to its body. At first I though it must be a common ciliate that was trapped under some plate-like debris, but then I kept seeing more of them on the same slide, there were literally dozens if not hundreds of them! Here is a video at 500X:

Here's a photo of 5 more of them:

There were many more of them and they all had the same appearance. Any idea what these are?

No need to slow it down if you ask me Thank you so much for sharing these, it's impossible to find everything in one tank, so I really appreciate the help.

It looks like these things have some kind of shell around them. Is it possible you are accidentally squishing them? If you have petroleum jelly or similar you can add a little bit to the edges of the cover glass. That should ensure you don't squash them. Alternatively place another cover glass left and right from the sample and place the actual cover glass on top of both like a little bridge.

 

[Freenow54]

Amazing thanks for sharing . Maybe someone else has the issue of not having the video play. If so just click the " enhance button in the frame.

 

[RobertK]

It looks like these things have some kind of shell around them. Is it possible you are accidentally squishing them? If you have petroleum jelly or similar you can add a little bit to the edges of the cover glass. That should ensure you don't squash them. Alternatively place another cover glass left and right from the sample and place the actual cover glass on top of both like a little bridge.

I don't think I was squishing them, at least not more than I ever squish anything else. I dropped the coverslip onto the slide and gently mopped up the excess water with a tissue. If those scale-like plates are fractured shell fragments then the shells must be very fragile.

I repeated the same exact collection procedure today, 24 hours after I found them yesterday, same time of day with lights on, and I used your anti-squish slide preparation technique. Did not see a single one of them. I even repeated the procedure with twice the amount of water poured through the sieve (20 liters vs. 10), they were not there today. I must have caught a bloom of them yesterday, whatever they were. Strange. Will keep an eye out for them.

I did see this little guy though. Sorry for the poor video quality, he was moving fast and kept going in and out of focus, but I thought he was cute!

 

[EnterName]

It looks like these things have some kind of shell around them. Is it possible you are accidentally squishing them? If you have petroleum jelly or similar you can add a little bit to the edges of the cover glass. That should ensure you don't squash them. Alternatively place another cover glass left and right from the sample and place the actual cover glass on top of both like a little bridge.

I don't think I was squishing them, at least not more than I ever squish anything else. I dropped the coverslip onto the slide and gently mopped up the excess water with a tissue. If those scale-like plates are fractured shell fragments then the shells must be very fragile.

I repeated the same exact collection procedure today, 24 hours after I found them yesterday, same time of day with lights on, and I used your anti-squish slide preparation technique. Did not see a single one of them. I even repeated the procedure with twice the amount of water poured through the sieve (20 liters vs. 10), they were not there today. I must have caught a bloom of them yesterday, whatever they were. Strange. Will keep an eye out for them.

I did see this little guy though. Sorry for the poor video quality, he was moving fast and kept going in and out of focus, but I thought he was cute!

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/microscopy-thread.1138845/post-14386145

Second video in post 39 shows a similar specimen but probably younger. The head shape is very distinctive.