More photomicrography

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Spent a few minutes last night chasing critters around a drop of algae from my marine tank.

Mwraarrr!!

[Blue_In_AK]

1. That thing looks scary.

[X_Digger]

2. It only has one eye, too! (Seriously, the common name is cyclops.) n/t

[Blue_In_AK]

4. I used to love looking at things under a microscope

when I was a kid. I thought of getting a biology degree until I found out that you needed to take chemistry, too. Lol.

[Curmudgeoness]

6. I loved it so much

that I suffered through chemistry (which was easy until you got to Organic Chemistry) as well as calculus and statistics (OMG) to get that biology degree. Lots of help that was to me......I work as a controller in a trucking company now. Go figure.

[Blue_In_AK]

11. I hear ya.

I ended up with a BS in psychology (mainly because I was taking a lot of psych courses as electives and was making A's in all of them), but worked most of my life as a legal secretary/paralegal -- after I SWORE I would never work in an office. Thank god for that one year of typing class in high school. Lol.

At least getting an education in those days didn't put you in debt for the rest of your life.

[X_Digger]

7. There's just so much life in so little a space.

One thing's for sure, you'll never feel the same way about getting a mouthful of saltwater at the beach again.

[Curmudgeoness]

3. Do you know what the critters are?

Are most of the diatoms? I am used to looking a pond water instead of salt water, so I am not sure of identifications. Is the critter pictured a Daphnia of some sort?

[X_Digger]

5. Harpactid copepod is the big one (aka cyclops), the smaller moving critters are dinoflagellates.

There are a few diatoms scattered throughout, lots of tiny bacteria (the corkscrew one is cyanobacteria..)

Offhand, that's all the ones I can identify.

[Curmudgeoness]

8. Thanks.

By the way, I think that you posted a link to your aquarium at one time, and I can't find it now......was that you? And could you repost it? I enjoyed it.

[X_Digger]

9. Sure!

This is a link to the USB microscope camera set up pointing at the sand.

Right now there seems to be a party of ostracods playing..

http://rowelab.com/fish/camera/fugecam.php

[Curmudgeoness]

10. This time, it is saved in favorites.

I can get a calmness in looking to see what is happening in the micro-world.

[Solly Mack]

12. That is so cool.

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13. Another video..

A nematode and some dinoflagellates.

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14. More USB microscope footage..

As the lights came on this morning, I noticed a lot of tiny 'pods* crawling along the sand / water interface. Watch full screen for best effect.

* 'pods refer to any number of species of small crustaceans- amphipods, isopods, copepods, mostly.

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15. Another bit of microscopy..

Ain't nothing but a dino thang..

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16. Another video..

I was checking out the diversity in a sample of sand and came across this worm.

They usually build tubes of sand and mucous around themselves, kind of rare to see one 'naked'.

And here's a larger shot of an ostracod.

And a super tiny brittle star-

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17. Aaaaand one more..