Yeast DE-DIC

curt0909 · Post by **curt0909** » Mon Jul 09, 2012 4:49 pm

Please view at 1080HD.

Baker's yeast. Digitally enhanced DIC. These video's are the result of my attempt to resolve the most possible detail with my current set up. 1.40 NA condenser, 1.40 NA objective. Glycerin immersion. Green light. My current illuminator is not able to produce enough deep blue light to record video at an acceptable iso.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEjwZnBG ... E3ZFP2yVow

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0l5O7gu ... ature=plcp

Mitch640 · Post by **Mitch640** » Tue Jul 10, 2012 3:48 am

I have wondered what they look like up close. The best I can do is 40x now. I feed brewers yeast to parameciums in a jar and have kept them alive and healthy now for over 4 weeks. Very interesting stuff.

curt0909 · Post by **curt0909** » Tue Jul 10, 2012 6:25 am

I never thought to use them as food for cultures. I use yeast for CO2 infusion into my planted fish tank.

Mitch640 · Post by **Mitch640** » Tue Jul 10, 2012 6:56 am

Virtually everything I find to look at loves brewers yeast as a food. They pack themselves with it. Parameciums, Amoeba, Paranema, even small Scuticociliates and Rotifers. I assume stentor and vorticella do to, although I have not seen any of those yet, or the ostracods or Copepods.

Olympusman · Post by **Olympusman** » Tue Jul 10, 2012 9:49 am

Mitch,
How much are you using and how large is the jar? Yeast really get going, so are you using just a pinch?

Mitch640 · Post by **Mitch640** » Tue Jul 10, 2012 10:14 am

I do not think yeast will do anything unless you add sugar. And even so, it makes a gas that will just go off into the air unless there is a tight seal on it.

The jar is just a 6 or 8 ounce jelly jar and I leave the lid off. I add a tenth of a teaspoon or less twice a week. Literally, a small "pinch".

curt0909 · Post by **curt0909** » Tue Jul 10, 2012 11:54 am

I'm going to try this. I've been using oatmeal which feed bacteria which eventually makes it up the food chain to larger cilliates.

Mitch640 · Post by **Mitch640** » Tue Jul 10, 2012 12:28 pm

I use a piece of a ping pong ball, cut into a squarish shape, then glued on the back side, the convex side, to a fondue skewer. I made two different sizes, one for each end of the bamboo skewer. They work extremely well and are so far, waterproof.

The small one is about 2/3 the size of my pinky fingernail, and I scoop about half of that out of the yeast bag for the jar.

I also use these to dip out daphnia and copapods from small containers, rather than using pipettes, which give them a rough ride.

curt0909 · Post by **curt0909** » Tue Jul 10, 2012 1:41 pm

That's new to me as well. I use a modified pipette for large specimens. I cut the end a bit wider so they don't have anything to hold on to. Large hydra were always a problem with the normal pipette tip.

Cactusdave · Post by **Cactusdave** » Wed Jul 11, 2012 12:32 am

Congratulations on extracting some internal detail from baker's yeast. It's a real challenge for optics and microscope setup.

curt0909 · Post by **curt0909** » Wed Jul 11, 2012 4:20 am

Thanks Dave,
I'm somewhat satisfied but there's a lot of room for improvement. I'm planning some modifications in the near future to allow for lower frequency of light and higher contrast DIC. If it works I will post the results

Mitch640 · Post by **Mitch640** » Tue Jul 31, 2012 2:31 pm

Just wondered, how has using yeast as food turned out for you?

curt0909 · Post by **curt0909** » Tue Jul 31, 2012 4:41 pm

Mitch640 wrote:Just wondered, how has using yeast as food turned out for you?

The spirostomum are eating them like tic-tacs. I'm going to start a new culture with more species and see how the other critters like it.

Mitch640 · Post by **Mitch640** » Tue Jul 31, 2012 5:05 pm

HAHA, so far, everything that moves and eats just gorges on them for me. Including such unlikely things as paranema. I have seen them packed with yeast, but never actually seen one eating.

curt0909 · Post by **curt0909** » Wed Aug 01, 2012 1:46 pm

I like how its instantly available food. Using oatmeal or some other bacteria food source takes time for the bacteria to proliferate and its easy to damage water quality if you add too much.

have you tried adding a little sugar with the yeast? I heard it makes the paramecium swim sideways.

Yeast DE-DIC

Yeast DE-DIC

Brewers Yeast