Mr. M's Microscopy of the Reef, FlowerMama's Dinos! #303

[Mr. Microscope]

Man, this is one of the coolest threads I've seen on NR in a while.

Thanks rb! Oops, looks like you posted this back in September. Sorry I missed it.

 

It's written by Pechenik.

called "Biology of the Invertebrates" by Jan A. Pechenik. I have the 6th edition.

Woohoo! I'll go check this out pronto! Thanks Newman!

Oh what I wouldn't give to learn on a SEM or TEM.... Knew I should've gone to the big state school. Lol science may not pay much, but if its interesting that makes up for it right?

Yes, science is interesting, but there's a reason why scientists are leaving the field in droves and going into things like finance, medicine, or real estate. Honestly, it's really tough raising a family on scientist money unless you worked for industry or pharma. But, then it's all about how many widgets you can pump out and not about the research. On the plus side, I just found out a paper I co-authored was accepted into Nature! That could mean good things for me down the road.

that's awesome! thanks for sharing

Thanks shinynic! Hopefully, I can post more in the future.

Bad ass, you do any tem also? I just did some cyro microtome and tem, man that was stressful.

Thanks Jstn. Yes, I do TEM as well. Did you mean cryo-ultramicrotomy? Yes, I'm skilled in that as well. I agree that it's really tough to learn. I've been at it for years and it's rather routine for me now, but the learning curve it extreme.

I have certain tricks to maintain a steady hand while working under oculars: don't drink coffee the morning you're going to do it, eat a banana, make sure you're not hungry (even blood sugar), and I breath out all my air when I need a moment of extreme still; I try not to breath back in until the maneuver is done. It also helps if you have a micro-manipulator to hold your grid for you. Also, instead of using an eyelash tool, I make my tools out of a white Dalmatian hair (I've recently discovered that white Beagle hair works as well). Finally, it really helps if you're ambidextrous while working under a microscope.

[eitallent]

I am now follower 18!

How did I miss this thread? Love it!

 

Thanks for sharing your views of the invisible.

[andi.rahl]

I hope you can post more, too!

[duncan-junkie]

Those pics are insane, very cool! Thanks for sharing

[.Newman.]

Micro, do you want to know the exact page number from that book for the electron micrograph of the bristleworm larva?

[Mr. Microscope]

Micro, do you want to know the exact page number from that book for the electron micrograph of the bristleworm larva?

I'm going to see if my university library has a copy.

[.Newman.]

They probably do.

[yoshii]

 

 

 

 

 

May I use this as my desktop background?

[Reef_Suds]

AWESOME PICTURES!~!!!!!

[Mr. Microscope]

May I use this as my desktop background?

Why would you want to use that when I can send you the full resolution version!? PM sent.

AWESOME PICTURES!~!!!!!

Thanks Suds!

[Chew_Magna]

Full res versions would be awesome. I was using the diatom pic as my phone wallpaper for a while.

[TJ_Burton]

Absolutely fascinating thread! Love it!
Keep it coming

[fastuno]

Awesome microscopy pics!!! I love them.

 

I too play around with a microscope & love photography and always wanted to blend the two.

 

Here are some of my macro past tank shots (just click on Exotic Fish).

http://www.pbase.com/fastuno/root

[Mr. Microscope]

Full res versions would be awesome. I was using the diatom pic as my phone wallpaper for a while.

Hey Chew Magna! Sorry for the late responds. I'm honored that you chose to use the diatom pic. It's one of my favorites too. Let me know if you want a full res pic of something. I'll send it to you.

Absolutely fascinating thread! Love it!

Keep it coming

 

Thanks TJ!

Awesome microscopy pics!!! I love them.

 

I too play around with a microscope & love photography and always wanted to blend the two.

 

Here are some of my macro past tank shots (just click on Exotic Fish).

http://www.pbase.com/fastuno/root

Thanks fastuno! They can be a blast. I think it's awesome to peer into a little hidden corner of the world that no one else has ever seen. It always feels like a victory to me.

 

Nice macros! I love that angel shot and the nem of course. Well done!

[Mr. Microscope]

Hello All,

 

There's no microscopy here, but I recently took a tour of the sea urchin facility that we have here in the university. I may have some related microscopy images to share in the future however as we are studying the sea urchin eggs.

 

There is another identical set-up to this on the opposite wall:

 

Check out the return pump on this setup. The thing is like a foot long and like four or five inches in diameter:

lol salt creep

 

Urchins! The facility gets different urchins depending on the season. Right now, they have these purple ones. Other times, they get a smaller white variety:

 

 

These are temperate/cold water urchins. So the water is kept around 57F.

 

They told me that this chiller wasn't quite enough, so they got a second one:

 

Skimmer!

 

Sump with some biological filtration in it:

 

Here's the barrel they use for making salt water:

You can see the test kit on it that they use for testing nitrate and phosphate. Of course, I tried selling them on a Hanna checker and something like Red Sea or Salifert for Nitrate. They are also using a hydrometer to check salinity. So, I told them about a refractometer.

 

With the urchins, they get a shipment of kelp that they use to feed the urchins.

 

Check it out. I found a couple dried up isopods in the kelp:

 

Here's my colleague feeding the urchins. She let me feed them as well.

 

Stay tuned! More science to come!

[Chew_Magna]

Man my ocd is going nuts looking at the lack of maintenance in there. I'd be on people's ass every day til that was cleaned up. That much salt spray on those chillers is no good, saltwater is highly corrosive. They'll be replacing those years before they should.

[picoreef78]

Sweet pictures!!

 

Thanks!

 

[Mr. Microscope]

Hello All,

 

I've recently discovered that I have dinos. I'm certainly taking steps to eliminate them from my system, but I figured this would also be a good opportunity to do some interesting microscopy. I'm planning to check them out by TEM and SEM.

 

 

From left to right, algae/slime taken from system today, dino prep for SEM (with algae), dino pellet prep for TEM.

 

Here's a close-up of the pellet:

[tibbsy07]

Can't wait to see!

[Mr Pants]

Ostreopsis. sp.. Treat them with respect they make palytoxin. If you kill a lot of them fast that could be a dangerous amount of toxin released. I'll try to send you that SEM protocol tonight. Its the protocol by Faust so you might be able to look it up too.

[Moolelo]

Cool urchin room, Stronglyocentrotus purpuratus I believe. I don't work much with temperate species anymore, but it is always impressive all the work put into marine systems for universities (I often forget this because our lab has running seawater).

Being a bit of an echinoderm fan myself, I'm curious how your Echinometra is doing?

[brandon429]

id give anything to see those dinos interacting in a mix of peroxide in live video like that, if you ever get bored interesting to see if death mechanism is apoptosis or bleaching etc, interested in cell wall integrity details during/post treatment for sure pm me if you ever do this!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jedimasterben]

id give anything to see those dinos interacting in a mix of peroxide in live video like that, if you ever get bored interesting to see if death mechanism is apoptosis or bleaching etc, interested in cell wall integrity details during/post treatment for sure pm me if you ever do this!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There is no point in using peroxide on them. A 10ppt salinity change bursts their cell wall almost on contact.

[brandon429]

that sounds like an open and shut case of invader beating

 

based on that simplicity, all dino invasions across species should be eradicated in a single treatment, within the week then. a problem ranging back to the dawn of reefing...

 

 

if it doesnt go down like that, for whatever reason (someone not wanting a salnity shock perhaps even though I do this to my tank for other reasons without harm) and people are posting dino threads next month like they have for 62+ mos then Ima be wondering about cell wall integrity heh

[jedimasterben]

that sounds like the first open and shut case of invader beating Ive ever seen

 

based on that simplicity, all dino invasions across species should be eradicated in a single treatment, within the week then. a problem ranging back to the dawn of reefing...

 

 

if it doesnt go down like that, for whatever reason (someone not wanting a salnity shock perhaps even though I do this to my tank for other reasons without harm) and people are posting dino threads next month like they have for 62+ mos then Ima be wondering about cell wall integrity heh

Dinoflagellates encyst if conditions become unfavorable (some species encyst simply as part of their life cycle). It's not known if they are protected in this cyst, but they can be 'resurrected' after hundreds of years of encystment.

 

Pre-15ppt dip:

 

 

 

One hour post-15ppt dip:

 

 

17 days post-15ppt dip:

 

 

20 days post-15ppt dip: