newbie views from a compound scope.

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Adrian
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newbie views from a compound scope.

Post by Adrian »

recently i changed refridgerator in my home as my old fridgerator is from the late 80's and it was long overdue time for a new one.

on the day my new fridge arived i moved all the food and everything into the new fridge and just let my old fridge to rott, i recently opened it to see if i could find some dirty water, i found some smelly old water!

i made a vaseline square on a slide and put afew smelly water drops on it, upon looking under the microscope, its filled with swarms of little single celled critters,

from watching them at 100x and 400x they are very quick little bugs

at 400x it is visable that they seem to be feeding agressively on even smaller wormish looking bugs with no visable details.

they seem to all go where the little bugs are at. where there is food.
and even they force themselves through vaseline and fight there way through it!

they remind me of hoards of ants because of there brute-like nature, they seem to be very strong but yet they are so small.

they are funny little critters arnt they?

Image
x400

Ken Ramos
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Post by Ken Ramos »

If you do not already have this link, you may want to bookmark it or save it to favorites. http://protist.i.hosei.ac.jp/Protist_menuE.html
Not necessarily the best source in the world for protist idnentificaiton but it is quite helpful. Another good informatioin source is "how to know the Protozoa," Second Edition by Theodore L. Jahn, Eugne C. Bovee and Frances F. Jahn Copyright 1949 by H.E. Jaques LCCCN 78-52716 WCB/McGraw-Hill ( IBSN 0-697-04759-8 ) spiral bound. There is also another publication of which I am not familar with but hear that it too is an excellent resource and that one has often been refered to as "Pattersons." I am sure there will be someone who can direct you to the correct title or you may find it on Amazon Books.

Those protists in the image you have here appear at a glance to be some kind of ciliate but sometimes looks can be decieving. There is also the possiblity of them being a flagellate. Thanks Adrian :D

gpmatthews
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Post by gpmatthews »

The book Ken refers to is

Free-Living Freshwater Protozoa - A Colour Guide by D.J. Patterson, pub by ASM Press 1996, reprinted 2003, ISBN-55581-275-9. I find it excellent.

My first thought on your image, just going by number and general form was Colpidium, although I'm not sure the shape is quite right for some of them.
Graham

Though we lean upon the same balustrade, the colours of the mountain are different.

Adrian
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Joined: Thu Aug 24, 2006 10:27 am
Location: Australia
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Post by Adrian »

initally i thought maybe they are the tetrahymena species of ciliates,
i believe that they are not now,

as i just woke up i automatically attended my specimine slide, to see that some of them have slowed down,
some of them must be exhasted, finally, some of them are still at it at full speed. they sure are frisky little critters

i decided to use the oil immersion 100x since some have calmed down and are not moving around to much.

i notaced that each one has a very long tenticale
allmost the same length as there body that curves at the end which they scoop up and eat food with,
ive allso notaced they have a second tenticale that drifts off the slide of there body and acts much like a tail, wingles around abit, could this be a sensory device maybe?

allso as seen they all have a single membrane on the upper half of there body near there tenticale which is of a tipical general size,
and there is a second membrane on the lower mid half of there body, which seems to vary in size,
to the rear membrane there are allso two smaller membranelles on each right and left sides.

there body shape tends to be somewhat like a ciliate, a very oval shape, very flexable and tends to deform as they move aganst objects and other critters,
allso when the poor things pass away they become the shape of a sphere.

so ive come to the conclusion that they are not tetrahymena from my closer observations at 1000x, but i still have not identified them

but i believe they are less like cilicates and more like flagellated protists, i think your right ken

Image
100xoil objective brightfeild

Thanks.

Adrian.
Last edited by Adrian on Sat Aug 26, 2006 6:11 am, edited 1 time in total.

gpmatthews
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Post by gpmatthews »

Yes, this closer view looks like they are flagellates - difficult to say quite which sort...
Graham

Though we lean upon the same balustrade, the colours of the mountain are different.

Ken Ramos
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Joined: Thu Jul 27, 2006 2:12 pm
Location: lat=35.4005&lon=-81.9841

Post by Ken Ramos »

Well, that image does narrow things down a bit, they are indeed flagellates of some kind. As to what family or geneus is yet to be descerned. Keep chipping away at it though, someone will undoubtlely come up with an ID, they usually do! :lol: Thanks Adrian :D

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