Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Using Microscope Attempt to identify algae species

Attempt to identify algae species using - - http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/resources/identification/algae/identification-guide/identify/guide

Here are reference images of my summer algae sample that shows no sign of dying after 5 months.






And some videos






























Show the dominate algae species is definately spindle shaped like this -

Single cellular with non distorting walls and no visible flagella.

My observation to answers to the identification guide 



  1. Algae are unicellular - not joined to neighbouring cells
  2. Cell wall is smooth, cell outline round to ellipsoidal, and featureless
  3. Cells containing membrane-bound organelles, such as chloroplasts and nuclei.
  4. Cell with rigid cell wall, lacking shallow groove at equator, and motile, propelled by one or more waving hair-like structures (flagella) - EXCEPT I CAN NOT SEE FLAGELLA, my microscope may just not be good enough to resolve - but had to say this to get to spindle shape..
  5. Unicellular chlorophyte with an elongated, usually spindle-shaped cell with two short flagella emerging from one end. There is a single chloroplast that may contain a visible eyespot. If flagella are not visible, the cells could easily be confused with the spindle-shaped cells of other genera.
Final results says -

Chlorogonium (Chlamydomonadaceae)

looks almost identical - 


But NO FLAGELLA and the shape isn't exactly like mine - 


nothing on youtube on Chlorogonium.




You tube videos on Euglena viridis - much higher resolution than I can get. AT THIS TIME.
I wish I could afford a microscope as good as these!! DAMN!!

This video was recorded 400x!! I have to goto 650x just to see them. Meaning these appear to be alot larger!!


These videos show this species changing shape from circular to spindle and are not algae but PROTISTS!! - After observing with the 25x eyepiece instead of the usb camera - I noticed that there is definitely a split end that I can seen vibrating - meaning it HAS FLAGELLA.

Wikipedia says - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euglenid this about Euglena.




So at this stage I am waiting to see if the two samples I have in petri dishes come to fruition ...........then isolate and culture...JUST ALGAE, NO PROTISTS ALOWED!!!!



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