Centropyxis Amoeba

I feel somewhat negligent since I see that my last post to this blog was made over 4 years ago. However, my microscopes are set up in the new house and I've found a camera tube that should result in some better photography with my Zeiss PC microscope so hopefully I'll be posting more regularly again.

After filtering some of the water from the bottom of an aquarium I found a whole bunch of these empty shells of a species of Centropyxis amoeba in the collected detritus, and oddly enough, no live ones up to this point. No apparent reason that there shouldn't be live ones since I've found all sorts of live micro-organisms. So, another mystery to be pondered and perhaps a search continued.

This is also a first experiment with the stacking software, Zerene. I'm happy with my first attempt using brightfield with my Leitz Laborlux S and am anxious to try it with images from my better microscope.

Tumblin' Tardigrade

After a long hiatus, largely precipitated by a long winter on the Gulf Coast and a longer summer spent in search of big fish, I've finally run into some poor weather.  Time to pull out the microscope but what to look for? At 10 degrees Fahrenheit, the water in the bird bath didn't yield anything interesting except for a number of small amoebae...moving really s-l-o-w-l-y. Pretty boring but suddenly inspiration struck. I was going big game hunting for bear.

It was off to the wood lot beside my home where various species of moss and lichen attach themselves to the scrub oak. I sampled a number of sites and brought home at least 4 species of moss and the same number of lichens. Most stayed in a big jar for drying and a source of samples when the waters freeze but a few small chunks were put into a petrie dish and soaked with distilled water. After a few hours I squeezed each moss sample and pulled a drop off with a pipette. My first look under the scope revealed a little water bear. Not sure of the species but here is a short video.

Locked in the basement...

Despite reporting in a previous post about a new traveling companion I must now recant and retire said companion to a cold Manitoba winter, locked in the confines of my basement lab. After a careful examination of every nook and cranny of our Gulf Coast rental unit in the online photos, I couldn't find a place suitable for a photomicrography setup. And so, a thorough examination of the Laguna Madre microfauna will have to wait for now, and if I'm lucky, proceed next year.

As a placeholder for next spring, I'll share a little video I assembled.

Experimenting with video on a possible Glaucoma genus micro-critter

On my second day of experimentation I've finally figured out how to set the white balance for video mode. It turns out that video white balance is set separately from digital stills WB. Next up will be the onerous task of trying to figure out what exactly the real colours seen through the eyepiece are. I ended up taking four separate videos, all of which turned out much better than previous attempts. However, they would all benefit from some artistic, or is that ruthless, editing so I'm only going to upload one here. The organism, a possible member of the Glaucoma genus, expelled a small portion of it's body interior just prior to taking the above shot. The contractile vacuole is still partially distended as a result of that expulsion. Not sure what was happening there and I wish I had caught it on video.

The one video I'm going to post here just shows a slow moving ciliate but displays quite nicely the operation of the contractile vacuole.

Rotifer deli...

I just threw together the new (old) Leitz, the new (old model) Canon T3i and a water sample with a few bdelloid rotifers and tried out the new video capability of my setup. This first video was shot in HD and features a resting rotifer that is not at all shy about sharing the details of her innards with observers at large.

This second video was shot at a resolution of 640 x 480. It features a group of bdelloid chicks hanging out at a detritus bar. If you look closely at the stomach area of the first rotifer you'll be able to make a diatom that was recently ingested.

These first attempts have captured my interest and I hope to do more soon. I've seen several interesting events in the last week or so, unfortunately before I had the camera. So for now I've got to keep looking and hopefully something special will pop up in my oculars. I'll also keep working on cleaning up the images and getting rid of the color cast.

Santa's practice fly-by...

Not that I believe in Santa anymore but how else can I explain the appearance of this little accessory to my new toy 2? My guess is that inventories for this item on North Pole shelves were through the roof and room had to be made for the new models. And since my wife still believes in the cheery, fat man I think I might get away with another one. :)

This will open me to another facet of this wonderful hobby...video. Viewing with these old eyes is getting tougher all the time and having a video to examine, in detail and at my leisure, micro-critters will be a big boon. And video doesn't show all those floaters at high power either. :)

My New Toy...

My fishing season is coming to a close and my thoughts are again gravitating to micro-musings and a trip to the Texas Gulf coast. The proximity of surf and Laguna Madre flats has me itching to explore that micro world but that darn Zeiss Universal is just too bulky to haul around in my travels. The microscopy muses must have been watching because a few weeks ago that itch ended when the perfect traveling companion, second only to my dear wife, fell off the truck and dropped into my life. My new toy...

Now I've got to look for the proper photo adapter to document what I find. Not the setup I'm trying to achieve with my Zeiss but at least good enough to properly document my findings. If anyone has any suggestions, parts or ideas regarding viable camera attachment options please let me know.