Is it that easy to identify strains just based on microscopic characteristics? Or do you need to use any stains or special procedures? I am familiar with looking for motility, so I will mount the slide expecting that.
No stains or special procedures. Just visual identification. While it's very simple to identify dinos vs something else like diatoms with a scope, it can be a bit challenging to identify the exact type of dino. Luckily there are some very lengthy dino threads here on R2R that you can post photos to for help with identification.