Colpoda with Astaxanthin-Jewels

Gerd · Post by **Gerd** » Sun Nov 15, 2009 1:32 pm

Ciliates follow a haematococcus pluvialis mass-reproduction.
I guess it is one of the genus Colpoda.
The ingested haematococcus cells look like shining jewels....
DIC, objective 40x, flash, scale bar is 25µm long.

Thanks for looking,
Gerd

Jbailey · Post by **Jbailey** » Mon Nov 16, 2009 12:11 pm

Beautiful photo, Gerd.

It's very well done!

Jim

Jan Kros · Post by **Jan Kros** » Tue Nov 17, 2009 8:36 am

Hello Gerd,
This is a very beautiful picture
Greetings
Jan

Ecki · Post by **Ecki** » Wed Nov 18, 2009 9:56 am

Gerd,

very nice indeed.

Best regards
Ecki

Cactusdave · Post by **Cactusdave** » Wed Nov 18, 2009 12:22 pm

Lovely picture. It must be difficult to get such a crisp, evenly lit shot . Such a clean background too.

Gerd · Post by **Gerd** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 1:38 pm

Thank you for your kind comments !
@Cactusdave: i usually try to separate the specimen i want to take a photo from.
If you take a raw sample, there is too much mud, plant carryover, sand crystals and so on
to work with higher magnification objectives. Higher magnification means over 20x Objectives.
So i take a thin pipete and try to catch my object under the binocular and put it into a new drop
of clean water. When there are no annoying remains, you can reach a thin enough water film between
slide and coverglass for Objectives with a high numeric aperture. If the water film is
not thin enough, you will have blurry pictures when you use 40x objectives or above.
Thank you,
Gerd

Cactusdave · Post by **Cactusdave** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 2:16 pm

I admire the picture even more now that I know you have had the patience and skill to transfer this beast to a fresh clean drop of water. I can fully appreciate what you say about raw samples from the pond being full of particles and sand grains.