Dinoflagellates ID (Microscope photo)

[Brian W]

Which strain is this? 40x magnification. I looked at images of Ostreopsis and Prorocentrum on Google but they look similar to me. Thanks

 

[ariellemermaid]

Can’t help you there but I’ll bump with a question. Is this a dissecting scope or a compound scope? Been thinking about a microscope lately and I think a dissecting scope would be more useful generally with some going up to 90x. Can’t imagine I’d need to image many things smaller than this.

 

[Brian W]

Can’t help you there but I’ll bump with a question. Is this a dissecting scope or a compound scope? Been thinking about a microscope lately and I think a dissecting scope would be more useful generally with some going up to 90x. Can’t imagine I’d need to image many things smaller than this.

I use the Swift Stellar 1-T Pro Compound Microscope. 40x is pretty good. This scope came with 4x, 10x, 40x and 100x objectives. It's still difficult for me to get great videos and pics at 100x. I've only recently got into microscopy a couple months ago so I'm still learning. I recommend checking out MicrobeHunter on YouTube. He has a ton of knowledge on microscopes.

One tip I can give you is don't get the cheap microscope cameras. I use my Canon M50 with a microscope adapter, but honestly holding up my phone to the eye piece gives the best quality photos and videos I've found so far. I really need to buy a phone adaptor for my scope.

 

[Isopod80]

Dinos are nearly impossible to id. from a still photo. It's their movement that reveals their identity. Search the dino id. threads here. You will find some vidoes to compare with what you're seeing under the scope.

 

[Brian W]

Also the 1000x-2500x they advertise is bs. As far as I know a 100x objective is pretty strong and about as powerful as ypu can get with kid/hobbyist grade scopes. I really only use my 10x and 40x objective

They trick you into thinking you will get a crazy amount of zoom when in reality you get the 1000x and 2500x zoom with 10x and 25x eye pieces.

 

[Brian W]

Dinos are nearly impossible to id. from a still photo. It's their movement that reveals their identity. Search the dino id. threads here. You will find some vidoes to compare with what you're seeing under the scope.

I just looked up some videos. It looks like most of them swim like prorocentrum but I did notice a few that swam like ostreopsis.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Isopod80]

Yup, you could have a mix. If you can take some video, post it on the dino Id. threads. There are some highly knowledgeable members here who could likely id. them for you so you can plan a more effective treatment.

 

[rusgum]

Which strain is this? 40x magnification. I looked at images of Ostreopsis and Prorocentrum on Google but they look similar to me. Thanks

Amphidinium Dinoflagellate