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The white area spreading from between the mandibles could be Beauveria bassiana “Icing Sugar Fungus” or a similar fungus.

David

Thanks Rob, I did try vaseline on the slide but had difficulty applying it consistently and would usually end up in bit of a mess. I didn’t consider using a small syringe, I’ll give it a try.

David

I like eye on the #2 (bottom) - good & very interesting thing for macro & stacking What does mean that "hair" on the crab's head (#4) - some sensor ? Or it is inside the body ? I agree that fish eye looks so perfect. The top eye is affected by the parasite tail and stacking artifacts. The markings ...

. Thanks for the kind remarks! I was using a darkfield condenser and Saul’s LED/flash unit on a BH2 and Zerene Stacker for stacking. The fish photo was taken with the fish in a petri dish of seawater and using the flash meant that I could (eventually) get a quick stack of 6 photos before the fish mo...

Thanks for the comments.

The crab megalopa was around 2mm across the carapace.

David

. This is the juvenile parasitic stage of a marine Isopod - Gnathia sp. I think. It's about 2mm long. During this stage they are blood sucking parasites of fish. The second photo shows it attached to a young Common Goby - Pomatoschistus microps . Note: It has eight legs, the front pair are hidden un...

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I C 3 4’s, 2 4’s + 3D4

Nice stereo, 4 out of 4!

David

Lovely images. I have started using ring binder hole reinforcement discs on slides to try and prevent squishing things, it works quite well but the to smaller stuff it's like an Olympic swimming pool!

David

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Beautifully done! I love the depth and perspective in the first one.

David

Many thanks for the kind comments. The variety of interesting things in one sample is remarkable. Marine plankton always fascinates to me to no end, and these are splendid images, thank you for posting them. I totally agree with Dr Berdan: your darkfield really makes them pop. I particularly love th...

. Thanks for the kind comments. Here are a few more things that ended up in the net. This is a tip section of Ceramium echionotum - Banded Pincer Weed showing the tetrasporangia (egg producing areas) on the surface and some of the fertilised sporophytes that have been released. Ceramium_echionotum.j...

Excellent! Great lighting and detail.

David

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Thanks.

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Wow! Truly beautiful images!

David

Thanks for all of your hard work Rik, it looks good.

David