r/microscopy Jun 08 '23

🦠🔬🦠🔬🦠 Microbe Identification Resources 🦠🔬🦠🔬🦠

148 Upvotes

🎉Hello fellow microscopists!🎉

In this post, you will find microbe identification guides curated by your friendly neighborhood moderators. We have combed the internet for the best, most amateur-friendly resources available! Our featured guides contain high quality, color photos of thousands of different microbes to make identification easier for you!

Essentials


The Sphagnum Ponds of Simmelried in Germany: A Biodiversity Hot-Spot for Microscopic Organisms (Large PDF)

  • Every microbe hunter should have this saved to their hard drive! This is the joint project of legendary ciliate biologist Dr. Wilhelm Foissner and biochemist and photographer Dr. Martin Kreutz. The majority of critters you find in fresh water will have exact or near matches among the 1082 figures in this book. Have it open while you're hunting and you'll become an ID-expert in no time!

Real Micro Life

  • The website of Dr. Martin Kreutz - the principal photographer of the above book! Dr. Kreutz has created an incredible knowledge resource with stunning photos, descriptions, and anatomical annotations. His goal for the website is to continue and extend the work he and Dr. Foissner did in their aforementioned publication.

Plingfactory: Life in Water

  • The work of Michael Plewka. The website can be a little difficult to navigate, but it is a remarkably expansive catalog of many common and uncommon freshwater critters

Marine Microbes


UC Santa Cruz's Phytoplankton Identification Website

  • Maintained by UCSC's Kudela lab, this site has many examples of marine diatoms and flagellates, as well as some freshwater species.

Guide to the Common Inshore Marine Plankton of Southern California (PDF)

Foraminifera.eu Lab - Key to Species

  • This website allows for the identification of forams via selecting observed features. You'll have to learn a little about foram anatomy, but it's a powerful tool! Check out the video guide for more information.

Amoebae and Heliozoa


Penard Labs - The Fascinating World of Amoebae

  • Amoeboid organisms are some of the most poorly understood microbes. They are difficult to identify thanks to their ever-shifting structures and they span a wide range of taxonomic tree. Penard Labs seeks to further our understanding of these mysterious lifeforms.

Microworld - World of Amoeboid Organisms

  • Ferry Siemensma's incredible website dedicated to amoeboid organisms. Of particular note is an extensive photo catalog of amoeba tests (shells). Ferry's Youtube channel also has hundreds of video clips of amoeboid organisms

Ciliates


A User-Friendly Guide to the Ciliates(PDF)

  • Foissner and Berger created this lengthy and intricate flowchart for identifying ciliates. Requires some practice to master!

Diatoms


Diatoms of North America

  • This website features an extensive list of diatom taxa covering 1074 species at the time of writing. You can search by morphology, but keep in mind that diatoms can look very different depending on their orientation. It might take some time to narrow your search!

Rotifers


Plingfactory's Rotifer Identification Initiative

A Guide to Identification of Rotifers, Cladocerans and Copepods from Australian Inland Waters

  • Still active rotifer research lifer Russ Shiel's big book of Rotifer Identification. If you post a rotifer on the Amateur Microscopy Facebook group, Russ may weigh in on the ID :)

More Identification Websites


Phycokey

Josh's Microlife - Organisms by Shape

The Illustrated Guide to the Protozoa

UNA Microaquarium

Protist Information Server

More Foissner Publications

Bryophyte Ecology vol. 2 - Bryophyte Fauna(large PDF)

Carolina - Protozoa and Invertebrates Manual (PDF)


r/microscopy Oct 28 '24

Photo/Video Share Journey to the Microcosmos: The Future of Microscopy (and end of our Journey)

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69 Upvotes

r/microscopy 6h ago

Photo/Video Share A rotifier eating

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19 Upvotes

I'm pretty sure it's a rotifier, Lecane genus.

Olympus BH-2 BHT, X10, X1000 magnification.

Pixel 9 camera.

Darkfield with green filter.


r/microscopy 4h ago

ID Needed! Do you know what these are ?

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13 Upvotes

Any one knows what these are i got this from my XSP 115rt microscope at 400x total mag


r/microscopy 5h ago

Photo/Video Share Rotifer lunch time

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11 Upvotes

100x / 1000x - No oil


r/microscopy 13h ago

Photo/Video Share Chloroplasts moving inside an algae cell in timelapse, with a bonus ostracod at the end

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44 Upvotes

Swift SW350, Galaxy S24


r/microscopy 52m ago

Photo/Video Share Water mite in red field

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• Upvotes

r/microscopy 5h ago

General discussion Good micorscope for begginer ?

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4 Upvotes

Rate my microscope it's XSP 115rt image quality is super good 👌

Any suggestions


r/microscopy 1d ago

Photo/Video Share Tardigrades

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118 Upvotes

Found a great tardigrade sample!
IS-1153-PLPHi, iPhone 17e, 20-60x objectives


r/microscopy 56m ago

Photo/Video Share Water mite in dark field

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• Upvotes

Oblique light. Sample: water from dish plant pot.


r/microscopy 1d ago

Photo/Video Share Always surprised when I find a little water bear

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30 Upvotes

Amscope IQCrew inverted microscope 10x objective, iPhone  2.7x, Petri dish with jarrarium freshwater, lichen, aquatic moss, and algae. Blackmagic app, flashlight to the right. Paper over the condenser.

I was just about to give up on finding anything interesting when the cat distracted me. Lucky for me, when I went back to look at the clump of algae that was sitting there, this guy was walking around on it!


r/microscopy 1d ago

Photo/Video Share Actinophrys sol, with fresh captured prey in vacuole.

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22 Upvotes

Sample of water from dish plant pot. Old microscope, and magnified with phone camera.

Actinophrys is a genus of heliozoa, amoeboid unicellular organisms with many axopodial filaments that radiate out of their cell. It contains one of the most common heliozoan species, Actinophrys sol. It is classified within the monotypic family Actinophryidae (Wikipedia)


r/microscopy 23h ago

Purchase Help A New Microscope

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10 Upvotes

I want a new Microscope, nothing is wrong with mine. I want it for the sole purpose of photography and identifying things I find. Would the Swift SW380T be a good investment?


r/microscopy 1d ago

Photo/Video Share I think there are quite a few oligochaetes in my backyard sample (aeolosoma, maybe?)

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19 Upvotes

footage taken after upgrading the lighting to a 10W LED

K55 BSA, 10x & 20x Plan, ELP Cam


r/microscopy 1d ago

Purchase Help Just bought an antique microscope - I have a few questions

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10 Upvotes

I went to a local antique shop and picked up this microscope. I’ve wanted to get into microscopy for a long time, but as a student with a budget of about $7, it’s been prohibitively expensive. I don’t yet know if I lucked out or not (I spent $100).

It’s a Fisher Scientific microscope in decent condition. It came loose in a random cardboard box, so no product box or label tells me its model type or year. Its product number(?) printed on the base is 6806746, which did not yield any conclusive Google results. It looks like its lens numbers are 4 (though this one is damaged), 10, and 40. Are these levels of magnification (ergo 40 = 40x magnification)? From what I’ve seen, it’s hard to get up close to most living microbes with anything less than 1000x. I learned (accidentally) that the lenses can be unscrewed; did they ever sell replacement lenses at higher magnifications? I’m willing to spend a bit more money on a site like eBay if that’s the case.

Basically, I want to know if this microscope is actually useable. I’m able to see things on the sample slides the microscope came with, so it does function, but it may not be good enough as it is to do proper microscopy with live organisms. Does anybody have any insight into this microscope and its potential?


r/microscopy 1d ago

General discussion What do you think of the condition of this BH2? Is it worth it? It’s a long video; the microscope light turns on at the 1:40 mark.

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8 Upvotes

r/microscopy 1d ago

Photo/Video Share Nauplius larvae

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35 Upvotes

200× | ESAW BM01 2022 MICROSCOPE used | sample: pond water


r/microscopy 1d ago

Photo/Video Share rotifer and heliozoan (?)

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8 Upvotes

K55 BSA, 10x & 20x Plan, ELP Cam


r/microscopy 1d ago

Photo/Video Share Fertile flower of Hydrangea

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17 Upvotes

Model: Eureka Microscope

Magnification: ~100x


r/microscopy 1d ago

ID Needed! Advice Getting Started

4 Upvotes

This video is from my AmScope B120C-E5 w/ 5MP Camera. Video taken at 1000x. This is a sample from algae I scrapped off a rock.

  • First off, what is the thing moving around? At the end of the video I'm pretty sure that's a diatom.
  • Advice on how to identify things in the future?
  • I'm pretty bad at the lighting and focus, any tips on that would be appreciated!

I'm a few days in, having tons of fun! Can't wait to get better and find some cool stuff.

https://reddit.com/link/1v2v1ll/video/876zgbrrcneh1/player


r/microscopy 1d ago

Photo/Video Share After the bacteria boom yesterday, chilodonella multiplied, and now I have a whole cultured of them.

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9 Upvotes

Swift SW350, Galaxy S24, 100x


r/microscopy 21h ago

Troubleshooting/Questions Seeing nothing on homemade slides

0 Upvotes

Please explain this to me like I’m 5. We just got our microscope, have some prepared slides, focused fine, could see what we wanted, etc.

Moved on to trying cheek swab, see nothing but blue blur, no cells at all. Do I need to let the slide dry before putting on methylene blue? I’ve tried with water, without water, with dye, without dye, with a swab, with a toothpick. Tried with blood because my son’s tooth fell out-still can’t see any cells. Help?

Sorry for the newbie question.


r/microscopy 1d ago

Purchase Help Birthday Gift for my lovely partner

2 Upvotes

Hey all! I'm new to this sub so apologies if I'm rather ignorant but my girlfriend is in love with animal care and has many setups for her isopods, aquatic snails, fish, shrimp, and more! She had considered asking for a proper microscope from her family for her upcoming birthday, but ultimately decided against it and wanted to do research beforehand. That being said, now that that window's open I'd love to be able to get it for her but wouldn't want to take that leap and buy a product she isn't satisfied in, ruining her future chances of getting what she actually wants one day. Are there any microscopes y'all would recommend that is somewhat budget-friendly yet applicable to her needs? I'll go into more detail if requested and thank you for your patience, I love animals but am frankly new to the microscopic world. Appreciate it!


r/microscopy 1d ago

Micro Art Anther of a flower from a snake plant. Leitz 9x12 camera. Leitz 4x objective and 8x eye piece. Jason Lane Dry plate.

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5 Upvotes

r/microscopy 1d ago

Purchase Help Looking at microscope. Is this a good start scope?

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10 Upvotes

Been a lurker in this sub. Came across this scope for sale in Singapore and wonder if this scope is a good deal and starter? Quick check online, bh2 seems legendary