Marine Microscopy - anyone ever check out specimens from a dive under a microscope?

[mannydib]

Anyone ever take water or specimens back from a dive and check them out under a microscope? I bet theres alot of cool stuff to see. Id be curious to see the differences between the life forms found outside a wreck and inside of it.

 

[maractwin]

I do this occasionally with samples from my reef aquarium at home. I've never brought the gear down to the tropics to try it there. For instance, this:

is a larval shrimp I found swimming in my tank.

-Mark

 

[mannydib]

wow, cool

what kind of scope/camera do you use?
i was thinking of getting one.

 

[maractwin]

It's actually more of a toy than a serious microscope. I use a Digital Blue: QX3 Microscope (see http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000059TF3) which is a USB computer device, kinda like a webcam. It's fine for looking at plankton and the structure of algae and such. You couldn't use it to identify bacteria and other really small stuff.

Here's a newly hatched clownfish that was about 1mm long.

-Mark

 

[devolution365]

I have a high-school type microscope (40X - 400X) at home that works well for this kind of stuff. I can even take pictures through it by holding my digital camera's lens up to the eyepiece and taking a picture like that. I don't have any marine life pictures, but here's a sample pic of the diamond I got for my engagement ring: http://ericasworld.logic.net/gallery/v/Personal/Ring/DSCN0311.JPG.html

 

[UWupnorth]

devolution365
Don't feel bad my wife has to use a microscope to look at her diamond as well.

 

[drbill]

Do it all the time, but then I'm a marine biologist with several microscopes at my house. Also film plankton through a dissecting scope.

 

[DavidPT40]

So is one cup of seawater as teaming with life as a cup of pond water?

 

[drbill]

So is one cup of seawater as teaming with life as a cup of pond water?

Depends entirely on where it is taken from. If you scoop it out of nutrient rich upwelling areas it can be pretty thick, if you take it from open ocean tropical waters definitely not.

 

[archman]

I get my best plankton from saltmarshes, but that's just me.:14: