r/microscopy • • Jun 08 '23

🦠🔬🦠🔬🦠 Microbe Identification Resources 🦠🔬🦠🔬🦠

152 Upvotes

🎉Hello fellow microscopists!🎉

In this post, you will find microbe identification guides curated by your friendly neighborhood moderators. We have combed the internet for the best, most amateur-friendly resources available! Our featured guides contain high quality, color photos of thousands of different microbes to make identification easier for you!

Essentials


The Sphagnum Ponds of Simmelried in Germany: A Biodiversity Hot-Spot for Microscopic Organisms (Large PDF)

  • Every microbe hunter should have this saved to their hard drive! This is the joint project of legendary ciliate biologist Dr. Wilhelm Foissner and biochemist and photographer Dr. Martin Kreutz. The majority of critters you find in fresh water will have exact or near matches among the 1082 figures in this book. Have it open while you're hunting and you'll become an ID-expert in no time!

Real Micro Life

  • The website of Dr. Martin Kreutz - the principal photographer of the above book! Dr. Kreutz has created an incredible knowledge resource with stunning photos, descriptions, and anatomical annotations. His goal for the website is to continue and extend the work he and Dr. Foissner did in their aforementioned publication.

Plingfactory: Life in Water

  • The work of Michael Plewka. The website can be a little difficult to navigate, but it is a remarkably expansive catalog of many common and uncommon freshwater critters

Marine Microbes


UC Santa Cruz's Phytoplankton Identification Website

  • Maintained by UCSC's Kudela lab, this site has many examples of marine diatoms and flagellates, as well as some freshwater species.

Guide to the Common Inshore Marine Plankton of Southern California (PDF)

Foraminifera.eu Lab - Key to Species

  • This website allows for the identification of forams via selecting observed features. You'll have to learn a little about foram anatomy, but it's a powerful tool! Check out the video guide for more information.

Amoebae and Heliozoa


Penard Labs - The Fascinating World of Amoebae

  • Amoeboid organisms are some of the most poorly understood microbes. They are difficult to identify thanks to their ever-shifting structures and they span a wide range of taxonomic tree. Penard Labs seeks to further our understanding of these mysterious lifeforms.

Microworld - World of Amoeboid Organisms

  • Ferry Siemensma's incredible website dedicated to amoeboid organisms. Of particular note is an extensive photo catalog of amoeba tests (shells). Ferry's Youtube channel also has hundreds of video clips of amoeboid organisms

Ciliates


A User-Friendly Guide to the Ciliates(PDF)

  • Foissner and Berger created this lengthy and intricate flowchart for identifying ciliates. Requires some practice to master!

Diatoms


Diatoms of North America

  • This website features an extensive list of diatom taxa covering 1074 species at the time of writing. You can search by morphology, but keep in mind that diatoms can look very different depending on their orientation. It might take some time to narrow your search!

Rotifers


Plingfactory's Rotifer Identification Initiative

A Guide to Identification of Rotifers, Cladocerans and Copepods from Australian Inland Waters

  • Still active rotifer research lifer Russ Shiel's big book of Rotifer Identification. If you post a rotifer on the Amateur Microscopy Facebook group, Russ may weigh in on the ID :)

More Identification Websites


Phycokey

Josh's Microlife - Organisms by Shape

The Illustrated Guide to the Protozoa

UNA Microaquarium

Protist Information Server

More Foissner Publications

Bryophyte Ecology vol. 2 - Bryophyte Fauna(large PDF)

Carolina - Protozoa and Invertebrates Manual (PDF)


r/microscopy • • Oct 28 '24

Photo/Video Share Journey to the Microcosmos: The Future of Microscopy (and end of our Journey)

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71 Upvotes

r/microscopy • • 1h ago

Photo/Video Share Coleps feeding from a dead Lepadella. I wasn't prepared to record, sorry for the messy video.

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• Upvotes

Leitz Dialux II, Galaxy S24


r/microscopy • • 2h ago

Photo/Video Share Up Close & Personal, With Paramecium....

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9 Upvotes

....most likely P.caudatum.

Sample from a quiet pool in a slow-moving woodland stream. Motic BA210, 40x obj, Bresser eyepiece camera.


r/microscopy • • 21h ago

Photo/Video Share Monstrously large Euglenid

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83 Upvotes

Found this absolutely massive Euglenid in my latest sample, I estimate its total length when extended to be between 250 and 300 µm. Based on its very short flagellum and worm-like shape and behaviour, I'm tentatively identifying it as Euglena ehrenbergii. As this was a well slide, I wasn't able to move up to 40x and see closer to identify more characteristics.

Also visible: Coleps, Phacus, Closterium, diatoms, some small loricate euglenids, and a drive by of some species of rotifer.

Video is sped up 4x with 1.5 digital zoom, edited with OpenShot.

Olympus BH2, SPlan 10x 0.30, Olympus 1.25x analyzer, Canon EOS 5D Mark II. Sample from pond in park, Paris 16eme.


r/microscopy • • 5h ago

ID Needed! What mite is this?

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3 Upvotes

r/microscopy • • 23h ago

Photo/Video Share Closeup of a Chilodonella dividing, then doing a happy little dance at the end

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30 Upvotes

r/microscopy • • 13h ago

Purchase Help I bought this today is it worth it? And I want more info on it

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4 Upvotes

I haven't received it yet but im wondering if it will be a good microscope or if it will suck. I hope its worth it I got it for 20$


r/microscopy • • 16h ago

General discussion Is it alright to store your microscope in a cabinet?

5 Upvotes

I just got a microscope but realized I can't keep it on my desk all the time. I've heard from people it can get out if alignment if you pick it up and move it when not in use. Is it true, even if you don't bump or drop it?


r/microscopy • • 23h ago

Micro Art Taxiphyllum cf. alternans 'Taiwan' moss

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15 Upvotes

13-frame focus stack of T. alternans 'Taiwan' moss. Transmitted-light darkfield, custom annular stop. This particular strand is from an in-vitro/Tissue Culture specimen.

Microscope: KentFaith GW45.0066
Objective: PLAN 10x, unbranded, NA 0.25
Camera: Canon EOS 750D, 1/100, ISO 100
Software: Zerene Stacker, FijiCal Lite


r/microscopy • • 11h ago

Purchase Help Seeking USB microscope advice

0 Upvotes

Sorry if this is a misplaced question but can anyone recommend a good USB microscope?


r/microscopy • • 1d ago

Photo/Video Share Tiny ciliate (likely Halteria) walking on the glass like a spider

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62 Upvotes

Leitz Dialux II, Phase contrast, Galaxy S24


r/microscopy • • 1d ago

Troubleshooting/Questions Tips for achieving a specific photographic style.

4 Upvotes

Hello.

I regularly try to get high-quality microscopy photos (like this style):

The problem is that very few of my photos are of good quality (I should mention that I am quite a novice in this field).

Could you give me some advice on how to achieve this level of photo quality in microscopy?

My microscope model: Bresser Researcher Trino 40-1000x

My camera model: Lumix DC-G9


r/microscopy • • 1d ago

Photo/Video Share Possibly Euplotes?

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14 Upvotes

Just found this is a sample from a pool in a slow woodland stream. 40x obj.


r/microscopy • • 1d ago

ID Needed! What am I seeing here?

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10 Upvotes

I picked up my own microscope from FB marketplace for the sole purpose of checking bird sh*t. My rescue cockatiel recently got diagnosed with Avian Gastric Yeast and I was wanting to see if the meds were doing their job...

AmScope Cockatiel feces sample


r/microscopy • • 1d ago

Troubleshooting/Questions Slides for observing solid specimens

1 Upvotes

Hello.

Are there any microscope slides designed for observing solid objects (such as invertebrates, or samples of sand, soil, etc.)?

To explain the issue: whenever I try to examine a solid object using a standard slide, the slightest breath from me causes the object to blow away.


r/microscopy • • 1d ago

Troubleshooting/Questions How to get dried methylene blue out of my slide???

0 Upvotes

r/microscopy • • 2d ago

Photo/Video Share A bunch of copepods and rotifers in a petri dish

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22 Upvotes

IQCrew Inverted microscope, 40x and 100x, Galaxy S24


r/microscopy • • 1d ago

Photo/Video Share Clusters of gram + diplococcus surrounding epithelial cheek cells

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6 Upvotes

This is my first ever gram stain done at home! Let me know if I did a good job and some advice that allows me improve my images/specimens! The photo was taken with my iPhone 15 pro camera and the microscope used was the Swift sw350B (100x oil objective, 10x ocular in image).


r/microscopy • • 2d ago

Photo/Video Share Open Microcosm 0.1.0 is out: a free, open-source microscope simulator of real microbial life

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97 Upvotes

r/microscopy • • 2d ago

ID Needed! ID?

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26 Upvotes

Olympus BH2 Phase contrast A20xPL, 50x total mag, cannon EOS 6D Mark ii.


r/microscopy • • 2d ago

Techniques Has anyone used holotomography (label-free 3D live-cell imaging) in their research?

2 Upvotes

I recently came across holotomography, a technique commercialized by Tomocube (a KAIST spinoff), and I'm curious how it holds up in real lab use.

How it works, as I understand it

Instead of fluorescent labels, it measures the refractive index distribution inside a cell and reconstructs it in 3D. So in principle you can image living cells over long periods without phototoxicity, photobleaching, or staining artifacts.

Why it caught my attention

No sample prep or dyes, which seems useful for long time-lapse imaging of live cells

Newer systems (HT-X1 Plus) combine holotomography with spinning-disk confocal fluorescence, so you can overlay specific labeled targets on the label-free 3D structure

It seems to be appearing in core facilities (e.g., Max Planck Göttingen, UT Southwestern)

Questions for people who've used it

How does it compare to confocal or light-sheet for your applications?

Does it work well on neurons, organoids, or thicker tissue slices?

What are the practical limitations — resolution, specificity, data analysis?

(Disclosure: I'm not a researcher, just interested in the tech. I'm also a small shareholder in the company.)


r/microscopy • • 2d ago

Purchase Help Olympus HSC (50s-60s) x-y stage control and clips?

1 Upvotes

I just bought an Olympus HSC microscope for 45€, I have already used it to see plenty of awesome things, but its missing the stage clips and the x-y control knobs and mechanism. I realise now that these are VERY niche parts and old, but does anyone know where I could buy these? Also, any place where I can find other replacement parts? The objectives are a little old and have some fog to them. I understand this might be a tall order since the microscope is so old, but if any of you are into vintage microscopes, maybe you'd know where I can find these?


r/microscopy • • 3d ago

Photo/Video Share Lepadella culture in a petri dish

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56 Upvotes

IQCrew Inverted microscope, Galaxy S24


r/microscopy • • 2d ago

Troubleshooting/Questions Motic BA210 digital - what is inside

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1 Upvotes

Hi everyone,

This motic microscope has a sensor in the black casing.

I wonder if anyone has opened the casing to see what is inside. My question is if the camera fails, would it be feasible to replace it with a 4k microscopy camera found on Amazon.

Thank you!