bacteria

[Duncan]

I have had several private emails about bacteria seen on slides under a common microscope so I thought I would put it up here

you cannot see bacteria on a common compound microscope unless your stain your sample first, and even then on the most powerful setting with oil emersion you will only see pink or blue pin pricks or tiny rods on the slide like Morse code but ever so tiny.

so no in general you cant see them

if you want to know how to stain I will run you through it its easy and quite cheap to do

dunc

[Manky Sanke]

Yep, I tried staining for a koi disease course I took earlier this year (Richard Strange K.O.I. 313, Duncan). It's a very simple procedure but even at x 600 I wasn't able to identify an actual species, I could only describe in general terms what types of bugs I was seeing. But the project was fascinating because I was suddenly able to see much greater detail than I could without staining.

Then I managed to pick up a x100 oil immersion lens on eBay for £18 inc p&p which gave me a total of x1,000 and detail became much clearer. Anyone with an enquiring mind and a half decent microscope should definitely spend a half hour or so trying staining.