Microcrustacea and Microinvertebrates - Now Pic Intense!

Funky_Fish14 · #1 03-19-2010, 05:46 AM

Oh wow! Thats awesome! (thanks for sharing more!

)

Haha, yes, I know they have a name but since this thing is so tiny, I just said it 'looked' like X because I couldnt really tell. Thanks for the what I see is a class name! I didnt get this guy under the scope today so I still dont know more about what he looks like. He rests in a tupperware until tomorrow! haha.

Ok so, today was moreso a day/chance for me to figure out what im working with or what i have to look forward to. Here is what I came up with!

Pictures/info about the picture:

The first picture (Below) is a flatworm I collected off the front glass of my tank. It is about 0.5-1mm long when extended on the glass. Following some preservation advice for other types of invertebrates, I tried putting it in a solution of 70% ethanol which would also operate as a working medium (which would not leave 'salt' creep either. It turns out when you put this particular flatworm into ethanol, not only do they get upset and curl up (death resulting ofcourse), but they also turn from a dark brown/black, to a bright green colour (it was like a neon green to the naked eye). Unsure of the best way to plate it, I took the now altered specimen and put it on a microscope slide with the ethanol and added a coverslip. Here is a 'point' of one of the rear sections of the flatworm (this one has two rear points, unfortunately here it is slightly curved to the side so it looks out of line). The magnification here is 1000X.

Next, I collected what I figured was in fact an actual copepod of some sort. Applied the same ethanol treatment (transfered it to a solution of 70% ethanol). Here it did not appear to affect the specimen at first. I then transfered the specimen in the same way to a microscope slide with a coverslip. I should note that until and beyond this point I was using a compound or light microscope. I think the coverslip damaged the specimen as one can identify what appears to be the inner fluids of the specimen have 'blown out' the back end of it. The transfer was very clean and I rinsed it before it went in so I am quite sure this is what happened. The following pictures show with a magnification of 40x, 100x, 400x, and then 1000x on the upper left section of the head. I though it was cool that you could see colour in the specimen's head. Here are the pictures:

The next specimen is another type of copepod. This one I chose to attempt observation under a dissecting microscope, and placed it in the smallest drop of water I could get (I only had some crappy plastic disposable pipettes, so it was hard to adjust the drop size). the magnification on this microscope has a 10x ocular lens (similar to the compound microscope) and either 1x or 3x magnification on the primary lense. So the total magnification (in the end in these pictures) is 30x. This is another type of copepod, this one in particular is a female with a large upper body, and a thin tail section. Some sort of swimming mechanism is visible below the mid-section, and along the tail are egg-sacs. When I first took a look under the microscope the specimen was still, and I accidentally bumped it and it took off swimming around like crazy in this drop of water! That was the coolest thing ever to watch! I highly recommend watching that if you ever get the chance. I may try to get a video of it again, but it is a little hard. Another thing that boggled my mind was the sight of some of the small specs in the picture (that are like 1/500th the size of this pod) were Swimming around! You could see parts of some sort moving, and they were not completely round. That i have to check out! Anyways, here are some pictures. In one the specimen is on it's side, and the other it is 'flat'.

Hope everyone enjoy's the pictures! Oh, I'd like to add that sorry if the picture quality sucks, but this is using my Blackberry's 3.2MP camera 'looking in to' the lense where you would typically place your eye! It is VERY hard to get the picture to stay still in the correct spot (and you have to position it about 1" from the eyepiece), hence the blurred sections in most of the pictures. My professors were not there today and it was a random lab technician that let me do this stuff, so im hoping I can get some 'back-up' tomorrow in terms of getting some more functional material, and maybe finding out about a better 'scope.

Thanks for looking!

Cheers,

Chris

Funky_Fish14 · #2 03-19-2010, 05:55 AM

Man the thing i am just so thrilled by is that this is just from digging around in my friggen aquarium! A 'fish tank!'. These are in EVERYONE's fish tank! Critters this size, and smaller, and equally as interesting, are on doorknobs, blades of grass, in every part of life! Cool, to the max!

I will try to get some close-ups of some very very small bristle worms tomorrow, as well as the cells of both grape and feather caulerpa, a snail about 1/8th" long, and then get this polychaete worm 'examined' too.

Cheers,

Chris

Crytone · #3 03-19-2010, 06:29 AM

Cool stuff and pictures. I didn't even think of looking at the library for books on this stuff.. Might have to check it out tomorrow or something after class!

BlueAbyss · #4 03-19-2010, 07:21 AM

I have spent a lot of time checking out the tiny 'naked eye' sized stuff in my tank, and honestly that's the coolest part of my tank (and the reason it's not stuffed with corals and fishes)! I love the little hitchhikers that came in on the rock... I have algaes of all shapes, sizes, and (almost) colors, snails, various amphipods and copepods, polychaetes, etc.

My next tank is planned to be 'rock only' or LRWOF... Live Rock With Out Fish

Very cool, thanks for sharing

Funky_Fish14 · #5 03-19-2010, 04:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlueAbyss

I have spent a lot of time checking out the tiny 'naked eye' sized stuff in my tank, and honestly that's the coolest part of my tank (and the reason it's not stuffed with corals and fishes)! I love the little hitchhikers that came in on the rock... I have algaes of all shapes, sizes, and (almost) colors, snails, various amphipods and copepods, polychaetes, etc.

My next tank is planned to be 'rock only' or LRWOF... Live Rock With Out Fish

Very cool, thanks for sharing

I know what you mean! I love to stare at that stuff! Watching for things you'd never expect or have never seen, or even just seeing little specs zipping around! I thought it was so cool seeing this stuff with the naked eye, so small, and examining this coolest little critter that exists in thousands in my tank! Haha. I love it

Funky_Fish14 · #6 03-20-2010, 08:59 AM

Got into a different lab today with one of my bio profs. I was able to use a new microscope (and slightly more convenient to use, although less powerful than the light microscope) called an inverted microscope. This meant I could mess around with drops of water in, or an entire petri-dish full, yet it still keeps the objective lens close to the specimen. The prof also told me that she thinks we do have a microscope with a screen, but she is not entirely sure about it's availability/location yet, and that we MAY have one with camera adaptability. If you look very closely, (though its really hard to get with the camera), you can spot some colour in the limbs and other parts of the critters, for example orange/blue and some pink/purple specs in the copepods, and some significant orange in the polychaete worm. The red spot in the two pods is a semi-functional 'eye'. (A single eye found in all members of the Subclass Copepoda).

I did get a couple videos of these critters swimming around in their 'drops' of water. I will try to get those on when I get a chance tomorrow.

Anyways, the first specimen is the last one from the previous set of shots but under a stronger scope.

Funky_Fish14 · #7 03-20-2010, 09:00 AM

Another type of Copepod:

It was not very happy in this drop of water hence i think it began to, well, not do so well. The 'tail' began to twist upward like this. Once i transferred it back to more water it appeared to recover!

Under the same magnification as the last picture, most of these 'specs' are actually alive/moving around.

Funky_Fish14 · #8 03-19-2010, 04:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crytone

Cool stuff and pictures. I didn't even think of looking at the library for books on this stuff.. Might have to check it out tomorrow or something after class!

Definitely! I dont know where you go, but I just go to the small U of A augustana campus in Camrose, so our library isn't giant (but it is brand new!) anyways, I bet main campus, and possibly Gmac, have a pile more books so there is a good chance of finding more!