Microscopes in the fish room

[zinn29994]

How do you prepare the slides for viewing? Do you actually cut the gills or just do a smear of the gills?

[2075turner]

Most slides are made using a small amount of mucus. The slide or the cover slip is drawn along the lateral line, edge of the gill plate, around the base of the pecs, anus or the chin area. You wouldn't scrape a gill.

A small drop of water is added and then the cover slip is placed.

A gill lamellae clipping is more difficult. The fish must be knocked out and then using very good dissecting sissors, the very tip of a filament is taken. Too much and you do damage.

Just wondering when would you examine a gill clipping?

[2075turner]

Okay, thanks Graham,

I just purchased a microscope and wanted to learn what the proper proceedure on collecting the specimens. I never thought about actually cutting or snipping into these little guys (unless they were dead) I have a tank of fish that I received that have white poop that I can't seem to cure, so I wanted to get the scope to find out exactly what I am dealing with. When I received these fish they had been in there bags for about 20 hours from what I could calculate. One was DOA and the others have been stressed since I received them. I wasn't sure if one would recover at all. The water was extremely smelly with lots of poop in it. Obviously the shipper had not stopped feeding them. He seems to think that he knows how to ship fish, anyways I am trying to figure out what it is that they all (3) have now. Metro and parzi haven't helped....so I want to confirm what they have before proceeding with another treatment. I was going to start with looking at the white poop and go from there. Does this sound right? I should mention that after 2 weeks of eating very little they are starting to look for food when I enter the room, so they are getting better after about 1 month.

Thanks, Evelyn

[HEki]

Hi guys,
i have been reading forums for quite a while now and i came to a conclusion, that if i realy want to know what is going on with my discus fish i have to get me a microscope and start analizing their excrements.
I have 30 discus fish and they are not how they are suppose to be. And i tried everything to cure them, so now i decided to aproach and cure my discus from inside ...
So if anyone is expert in this field, please, i realy need advice on what kind of microscope to buy. I am looking for one with camera so i can record myself scoping the excrements ...
Any tips, tricks on what kind of microscope to buy are apreciated.

Best regards,
HEki

[HEki]

Anyone?

[rfeiller]

don't know where you live HEki
i purchased mine at a local laboratory supply house. the web is always a great source for locating needed items. talk to more than one, describe what exactly you want, pick their brains. what ever you get, unless you have endless funds, will be a compromise between quality, features, clarity and the amount you are willing to spend.

[pcsb23]

HEki, this is the sort of scope(s) that will eb useful, this site has many very nice 'scope too and accesories, don't know if you can get them where you are though
http://www.brunelmicroscopes.co.uk/s...icroscope.html

[William-LIC]

I picked this up on ebay. Its a Carl Zeiss. Got it for under $200. Has 10X eye pieces and objective lenses of 3.2, 10, 40, and 100. Giving it 32X 100X 400X and 1000X (requires oil). 32X and 100X is about all i have needed. As with telescopes its not about the maximum magnification, but the quality of the optics. Moderate and low power give amazing results and sharp images.

As a fish hobbyist, and general amateur scientist, i really like having this.
I purchased it to find out what the green slime in my tank was. I learned it was a cyanobacteria ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanobacteria ). This was easy to clear up once i knew what i was dealing with.

It's really amazing what you can find crawling around in there. :-O

[HEki]

Thank you guys!
I am from slovenia and like i said i will be buying microscope on the ebay. so there wont be any problem with shipping or anything. And the fonds are not a problem eather.
Again thank you all for your feedback.

One more thing. If the scope itself doesnt have the plugin for camera, what would be the easiest way to record what is going on down there ...

Best regards,
HEki

[MostlyDiscus]

I bought mine used many years ago from the The University of Maryland. Ed

[MostlyDiscus]

Nice Scopes Paul,,,, I may have to upgrade.

[HEki]

Guys,
i am sorry, but what would be the best way to take pictures or record the stuff ...

[William-LIC]

Some scopes have a port for a camera.
I have taken ok quality pictures by holding my digital camera to the eyepiece.
i set the focus to manual, infinity, and the zoom to wide.
I won't win any awards for my pictures, but they look like what i see with my eye.
i posted some pictures of worms(?) on 12/25/08 under fish diseases.

[discus bob]

Some scopes have a port for a camera.
I have taken ok quality pictures by holding my digital camera to the eyepiece.
i set the focus to manual, infinity, and the zoom to wide.
I won't win any awards for my pictures, but they look like what i see with my eye.
i posted some pictures of worms(?) on 12/25/08 under fish diseases.

I took some great pictures using a digital compact camera using the screen on the back but have had little success using my Nikon SLR.
Here's an example of a cheap digital camera.

[Roxanne]

Great thread apistomaster...

Gday Discus Bob

Did you take that with a digital looking down a scope or just the digital camera close up to the sample?

Rox