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Hey Ron,
I hope the cold weather up in Montana is treating you well, obviously your car isn't! Bad car! Anyway, maybe this will distract you a little.
We have finally obtained a high quality microscope for the RSF so we can begin to do larval work. We will have a few months before any really important work will be done with it, so I plan on spending that time fine tuning the scope and my skills.
I'll obviously be using your AHABS issue #3 (love that one, best $6 ever spent) as my starting point (along with a few Nikon publications) and my test subjects will be the billions (trillions?) of critters in my reef tank. I figured this would give us an opportunity to do a little ID fun.
Up first is mystery #1. Two unknown subjects. I saw hundreds of the circular (spherical) objects on the right, none of them moved at all. I only saw one of the critters with the forked tail on the left.
I'll get to the more interesting photos later once I'm sure I can put in inline images.
Brian
7 years FW, 5 years SW
Education is the solution to pollution, not dilution.
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| Hi Brian, It helps put things in context if I know the magnification. Not that that would help much here. The "forked tailed" thing - damifino. Possibly an algal spore starting to grow, possibly an artifact (a broken off something or other). The round colored gadget... also damifino. If it is not moving, it is either algal, or fungal or dead animal remains. My guess is algal former, but I don't know what to suggest other than that. I'll be glad to look at whatever you find, but I don't guarantee any useful results. 
Cheers, Ron
"The difference in mind between man and the higher animals, great as it is, certainly is one of degree and not of kind. The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man." Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
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Ron,
Thanks for the response, and consider yourself thanked now for any future responses, I'm likely to post a lot of pictures to this thread
Here is another one that you might have a better shot at an ID, this shot was at 100x mag:
More later, time to hit the hay.
Brian
7 years FW, 5 years SW
Education is the solution to pollution, not dilution.
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| Hi, It is a dead female harpacticoid copepod being consumed by fungi. Yummy stuff....
Cheers, Ron
"The difference in mind between man and the higher animals, great as it is, certainly is one of degree and not of kind. The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man." Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
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[quote]Ron Shimek (10/15/2009)
Hi,
It isa dead female harpacticoid copepod being consumed by fungi. Yummy stuff....[/quote]
I thought it might be, but actually she was very alive, moving all over the place, very difficult to get this photo. Perhaps my camera problems make her look dead?
Anyway, I watched her move around and even saw her consume some green (what I'm assuming was algae) off of one of the hunks of debris on the slide. Pretty cool to see the green material go into her gut cavity (after this picture was taken).
Of course she did end up dead after my observations 
Brian
7 years FW, 5 years SW
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And last of the initial shots before I attempt to improve the camera results:
I don't know what the main object is, diatom?, but the reddish tinged filaments in the background are from cyanobacteria 
Brian
7 years FW, 5 years SW
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| Hi Brian, Sorry, I thot she was dead because of what appeared to be fungal hyphae surrounding the animal. My bad. The graceful object in the center is, indeed, a diatom. Gorgeous creatures. Cyanobacteria filaments are common in our tanks, fer shoore...
Cheers, Ron
"The difference in mind between man and the higher animals, great as it is, certainly is one of degree and not of kind. The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man." Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
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Hey Ron,
Another round of shots with my guesses, these were again taken with no adjustments to the scope or camera, I just wanted to see if I could improve the shots by simply paying more attention to the fine focus.
What appears to be a dead larval snail at 200x.
a damifino at 400x:
a dead harpacticoid copepod (at 200x) that was being SWARMED by what I assume are ciliates. The haze of tiny dots on the dorsal side near the shell were all moving very rapidly.
According to my eyes, these photos do look slightly more in focus and the color fringing seems to be reduced. What do you think?
Up next...actually working on improving the microscope and camera settings and reading through microscopy references like Dr. Shimek's article!
7 years FW, 5 years SW
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| Hi Brian, Your first item looks like the operculum shed from a dead small trochid. I agree on number 2. Damifino. On number 3; definitely in better focus, however, it is possible to get better. I suspect you might need to fiddle with the substage condensor. Typically if the condensor is set well, there won't be fringe line around the object. The object, however, may seem "too" bright.
Cheers, Ron
"The difference in mind between man and the higher animals, great as it is, certainly is one of degree and not of kind. The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man." Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
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Hey Ron and All,
Another Round, enjoy! More damifinos!
I continue to work on the scope, haha work, funny. Play? Anyway, two changes to the equipment today:
1. We removed the 40x Phase contrast objective and replaced it with a 40x Plan lens objective. I'll need to do some additional comparisions, but the 400x shots now seem clearer.
2. We installed a blue filter on the light source so the yellowish tinge to everything would be removed. It also APPEARED to reduce color fringing, but more shots will need to be taken.
So here are some of the test shots:
TestShot1: Damifino
TestShot2: Damifino
TestShot4: Copepod again, I think in better focus, at 400x
TestShot5: Same copepods from previous shot at 100x
It is a little odd with that much color fringing, the pod looked in perfect focus in the scope.
Brian
7 years FW, 5 years SW
Education is the solution to pollution, not dilution.
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