I have nematodes!!!!!

[ATJ]

In my tanks, I mean.

I dragged out the microscope my sister gave me last Christmas, tried to remember what I learned in Microbiology 101 22 years ago and got the thing working.

I took a sample of algae from one of my tanks, put it on a slide and looked at it at 10X (well 100X counting the eyepiece). There are a myriad of algal cells (I'll have to read back over the lectures to work out what) plus some worms moving with a whip like motion (nematodes if I have read the lecture and text correctly).

I wish I'd got the microscope out earlier.

 

[desertreefer]

Whew, that was close! I'm glad they are in your TANK. Lottsa fun looking at them through the microscope, huh? I just wish they wouldn't thrash around so much. Makes them more difficult to study.

 

[ATJ]

Sandy,
Well, Dr Ron already told us WE have nematodes.

It is a lot of fun. I think it is more fun because I now know what many of the things are. The nematodes seem to be stand outs (or is that writhe outs?) because of their shape and locomotion (and they are the freshest in my mind

).

I can also see various species of diatoms as well as some algae or cyanobacteria which are long strings of cells. There are these ciliated guys that look like the classic Paramecium. I see quite a few crustaceans, mostly what I think are nauplii, but there were a few that look like tiny, tiny crabs.

What I need to determine is the scale. Do you know of an easy way to determine the size of the field of view so we can estimate the sizes of things?

 

[ATJ]

As I was typing my question about determining the scale, I thought of looking at the edge of a ruler, but wasn't sure if there'd be enough light. There was and I now know that at 10X (plus the 10X eyepiece) the field of view is around 1.3 mm. This puts the nematodes I could see at around 0.8 mm.

 

[rshimek]

Andrew,

GREAT observations! For a scale you did exactly the right thing, it is what I have students do in all my classes.

Some of the "paramecium" like things may be flatworms - look for the statocyst!

Your identification of the nematodes sounds good!