Hi all,
Since joining the unfortunate souls battling dinoflagellates, I've learned that a lot of reefers have, or are interested in having microscopes. I am a science nerd myself and was using this huge bulky old scope I got because it was being thrown out as trash. I did my best to take pictures with my phone through the eyepiece.
Much to my surprise, you can buy a decent microscope with a 2 mp still or video camera on Amazon for around $135. So, I thought, what the heck, with all of the money I'm throwing at these stupid dinos, I might as well see what's going on.
To get to the point of my thread, it seems like it would be cool to set up some kind of database of microscope pictures from members, perhaps with ID of life represented or asking for ID. Once you start looking around in there, there's a whole lot of stuff you have no clue about. But, the main reason would be to help folks ID pests, such as dino species, cyano vs. dinos, etc., and, if you're so inclined (I'm not) fish skin scrapings.
If you are a marine biologist, I'm sure you can find many resources on the internet to help your work, but not being one, this information is spread out and difficult to find. It is also not directed at reef tanks, but oceans of the world.
Anyhow, just wondering what people thought, or if I'm being goofy. And, if anybody know what all of those microscopic nematodes are that are in clumps of algae, please let me know!
Thanks for reading.
Since joining the unfortunate souls battling dinoflagellates, I've learned that a lot of reefers have, or are interested in having microscopes. I am a science nerd myself and was using this huge bulky old scope I got because it was being thrown out as trash. I did my best to take pictures with my phone through the eyepiece.
Much to my surprise, you can buy a decent microscope with a 2 mp still or video camera on Amazon for around $135. So, I thought, what the heck, with all of the money I'm throwing at these stupid dinos, I might as well see what's going on.
To get to the point of my thread, it seems like it would be cool to set up some kind of database of microscope pictures from members, perhaps with ID of life represented or asking for ID. Once you start looking around in there, there's a whole lot of stuff you have no clue about. But, the main reason would be to help folks ID pests, such as dino species, cyano vs. dinos, etc., and, if you're so inclined (I'm not) fish skin scrapings.
If you are a marine biologist, I'm sure you can find many resources on the internet to help your work, but not being one, this information is spread out and difficult to find. It is also not directed at reef tanks, but oceans of the world.
Anyhow, just wondering what people thought, or if I'm being goofy. And, if anybody know what all of those microscopic nematodes are that are in clumps of algae, please let me know!
Thanks for reading.
