r/microscopy

AxioSkop 50 microscope

2.5x objective

10x eyepiece (photos via iPhone camera on eyepiece)

iScope 1153EPL 20X plan objective, cheap 1080p webcam on trinocular port, blue/red filter on illuminator to give 3D on monitor with red/blue glasses. Sample is pond algae cultured in a small aquarium, 50ul placed on a slide with trace of oat, slip sealed with Vaseline to make a micro-ecosystem. This video is about 6 days after preparation. Timelapse - 250X normal speed.

Eggs I collected shortly after hatching. Olympus BH2 (BHTU), 4x UPlanXApo, Darkfield/oblique illumination, Nikon DS-Fi3 camera. The sample is from a pond water jar I have with lots of aquatic snails.

Leitz Dialux II, Galaxy S24. Technically the "darkfield" is oblique, too, because I was too lazy to switch to proper darkfield.

I'm hoping someone with more ciliate expertise can help me narrow down this freshwater ciliate.

Sample: freshwater pond, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand

Microscope: Zeiss compound microscope, brightfield

Magnification: 40× objective

Camera: Phone camera through microscope adapter

I've been observing this organism for quite a while and I'm struggling to place it.

What I've observed:

• Definitely ciliated, with what appears to be ciliation around the whole body

• Free-swimming — I watched it for ~30–60 minutes and never saw it attach

• Swims relatively quickly and rotates around its longitudinal axis

• Very flexible/contractile; the entire cell can change shape quite dramatically within a few seconds

• When extended it is elongated/ovoid

• The posterior is particularly unusual: it can develop a pronounced U-shaped indentation, but this changes as the cell contracts/deforms

• The anterior has a conspicuous region of denser/longer, rapidly moving cilia

• I can see several internal structures/inclusions (roughly green, brown and clear), which seem to maintain approximately the same relative positions while the cell changes shape

• I haven't been able to see an obvious contractile-vacuole pulsation

I'm currently completely open on the identification. Nassulidae and Stentor have both crossed my mind, but I'm not confident in either.

I'd particularly appreciate comments on the morphological characters that support or rule out particular groups, rather than just a resemblance-based ID.

I have additional video footage if useful. Any suggestions about what features I should look for with my 100× oil objective would also be very welcome.

Thanks!