Zooplankton and Protist Videos

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Tonight I got some pretty neat clips of a couple specific zooplankton I'm hoping to make positive identifications on, soon.

Species #1

Species #1

Species #1

Species #1
This creature shares similarities with other ciliate.

Example here. Ciliates include parmecium and are protozoa.

Vorticella, another ciliate, from darwin.baruch.cuny.edu
And from Phylum Cilophora, which provides a breakdown of genus and species.

From Kariorelictida: Loxodes, Photography of Ciliates
3/15/07 -- Zooplankton video on youtube.com, video one
The first in the above video, I'd already seen and photographed on several occasions. The second individual which appears, (Zooplankton Video #2) is a new one however. The algae sample I recently took from BCC has set near my bathroom window for a few days, to let the phytoplankton feast on the warm sunshine. I left it there for the past few days and didn't refrigerate. I noticed tonight's slide was full of zooplankton activity -- far more than usual, far more than phytoplankton, including some individuals I haven't seen before in rather large numbers.

Species #2
Species #2
Species #2
Species #2
Some of the strange loops and curves this little creature takes during its swim.


There was a third species
Third Video, Zooplankton and Fourth Video, Zooplankton much smaller than the previous two, which I was fortunate to keep up with briefly, with the camera. These creatures move fast, and sometimes make difficult subjects to photograph or film. Here's that cute little bug again in Video #5 zooplankton, and as its going around in circles another even smaller zooplankton swims by, but is streamlined and shares more similarity with fish.

Species #3
Here's the first species, in video one I wish to identify, caught in Zooplankton video #6.
The second species, caught in zooplankton video #7.

Video #8 Zooplankton shows one of the small zooplankton species swimming beneath what appears very likely to be a deceased ostracod of sorts (favors a small clam), you can still make out the hairs on its shell. Very brief but clear species #2, Zooplankton video #9. Species one is also captured on Zooplankton video #10.

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Diatoms Photos

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Of growing curiosity to me...

Diatoms


For brief but insightful explanation of what diatoms are, see my earlier post on Diatoms.



Also available online, my collection of photography of Diatoms.

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Protococcus

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From Aids To The Recognition of Fresh Water Algae, Invertebrates and Fishes


More photos of Protococcus

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Hit the Microscopy Jackpot

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I just figured out how to capture images, nearly picture perfect as they appear under the microscope lens. My camera (Canon PowerShot S3IS) has a setting for "Sports" shots. It captures shots split second while reducing blur. So, the incredible result appears below:

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Image #1 magnified at 40x


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Image #2 magnified at 40x


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Image #3 magnified at 40x


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Image #4 magnified at 40x


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Image #5 magnified at 40x


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Image #6 magnified at 40x

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Volvox

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Several years ago (around 2003) I made my mind up that one day, I was going to photograph a volvox after learning about these fascinating little creatures. They're somewhere between the plant and animal kingdom. A volvox is a colony of sisters, but they use photosynthesis / chlorophyll like plants do.

Made a goal, stuck to it, and made it happen.
Today, after all this time, I captured my first volvox. Mind you, it's not much of one, but it is a volvox. And, for all case and purpose, that's what matters. I've tried multiple samples of algae over the weekend, and today I tried a new pond out (out back of the Aquaculture facility) and in the dissection microscope, I saw a volvox. Twice it was lost behind other material, but alas I did capture it on my camera.

Enlarge Image The volvox was located at the lower right hand corner of the photograph. Photograph made at Brunswick Community College by me of course. *smile*

Later this evening, I did capture a clean, green little volvox... all to itself, and made video and photos of it.

Volvox






Additional Links
Volvox, Images and Videos, Pg. 1
Volvox, Photographs, Pg. 2
Volvox, Photographs, Pg. 3
Volvox, Photographs, Pg. 4

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Spring Break

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Since this is my "college journal" of sorts to tell the world my joy, whoa and tribulations... I'm really looking forward to upcoming Spring Break. aaaarrrrggghhh... I really hope I'm going to be able to catch up on all the loose ends with my school-work.

John (instructor at BCC) recently gave me a printout, "Aid to the recognition of Fresh-Water Algae, Invertebrates, and Fishes"... after peering through the microscope for several hours and seeing such diversity of life-forms in different samples of water (three to date),
1. John's "Algae tank",
2. a sample strained from a salt-water tank, and lastly,
3. the BCC Aquaculture Ctr. has a tiny pond with lily pads growing in it. I began seeing the significance of the paper he gave me.




Lilypads in a tiny pond in front of BCC Aquaculture Ctr.
I'm thinking to go through the samples one at a time, and capture each in photograph, and video if its interesting...



What's frustrating... it may take 25 or 50 or more shots, via exterior digital camera (using super-macro, to even get one good clear image through the lens of my microscope). Even these shots... the best of the batch, came out blurry. The software program which was included with the microscope I purchased is good, but it can never match the light, and quality of the real-life scene I'm seeing through the lens of the microscope. Capturing a high-focused, quality and true-to-life image, takes a lot of time, and needless to say, a lot of work.
-- ... then document more detailed information about the lifeform...
what it is, and what it does. This, along with so many other things I'm caught up in, like our final research project (I chose disection of a fish) and honestly haven't made the first crack at working on it [too many other things I'm wrapped up into] I have my schedule stretched out so thin, to do and accomplish so much, I emphasize aaaarrrrggghhh... I need more time to do it all.
I'm over-extended. But I really do love it. The Aquaculture center has so many interesting things going on it. I just sorted through some of my recent photographs, like this one of the crawfish the center has growing in a trough out in the hatchery.


So many interesting things to learn about, but so little time. College was definately the right choice for me, although I'm not the youngest student (mid-late 30's) but it's never too late to start learning something new. I just couldn't get enough information from the web, and I couldn't afford all the books on Amazon required to get where I want to be in my personal studies / hobbies. Our local meterologist George Elliot, WECT News 6 said, when you stop learning new things, you stop growing. So, it's never too late to get back into school.
My interest in marine biology has been growing since I first became interested in Cetaceans (whales, porpoise, dolphins) back in 2001, followed by a growing interest in mollusks, which developed from some trips to the beach and sifting through beachdrift... little creatures often taken for granted by tourists who walk right by, stepping on the shells and sometimes breaking them... which is bad, on the occasion, say an Angelwing, a very fragile shell washes up in one piece on the shoreline, and they do on a rare occasion. It dawned on me, each of the species I was looking at, have a unique story to tell. I began finding out what those stories are. Marine Biologist Terry K. Hathaway with NC Sea Grant has helped to identify most of those species, and I really have appreciated the input.

Right now, Algebra is what's dragging my schedule down. My Algebra instructor told me I should have taken his course, when not taking as many other courses -- making more time to focus on Algebra. But on a positive note, I'm about to complete another course that ends mid-term, and that may free up more time to devote to Algebra studies, at least hopefully, ideally...

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Microscopy of Algae

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The small splot in the middle is the tiny drop being magnified.


...at 40x the size of the actual drop.


Here's the drop magnified.

Pretty amazing toy.

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