Click the right-hand mouse button if you want to down-load any of the movies (click “save target as….). The file sizes have been kept reasonably small, hopefully without losing too much detail – they will take a minute or two to download- depending on your modem speed. Let them fully download before playing them. If ..
Practice make perfect Although the microscope is a fairly simple instrument to set up and use, interpreting what you see can sometimes be difficult. It really requires practice until such times as you know what is normal and what is not. As a piece of advice I would suggest familiarizing yourself with healthy or non-urgent ..
Setting up The most common cause of disappointing results is poor setting up of the microscope before use. The performance of almost all microscopes can be improved if a little time is spent focusing before use. No matter what quality microscope you buy, it makes sense to get the best possible image it is capable ..
General microscopy For general microscope work, a magnification between 40X and 400X is usually sufficient and will allow for relatively easy identification of most common ectoparasites. Higher magnification When talking about higher magnification it is important to understand the difference between simply magnifying the size and increasing the amount of visible detail. With high-power microscopy ..
A sequence of steps to take There is a clear sequence of steps to take to achieve perfect viewing. These are detailed in the box below. A word of warning: Take care when adjusting the focus knobs that you do not advance the objective lens onto the slide! It is very easy to break the ..
Specimen needs to be as thin as possible Before any specimen can be examined under the microscope, a slide has to be prepared. No matter how good your microscope is, the final image can only be as good as the slide you are viewing, so proper preparation is important. A normal compound microscope works by ..
An essential piece of equipment Without a microscope it is simply impossible to tell the difference between a water quality and a parasite problem. The microscope should be considered the most basic of tools in fish disease diagnosis – indeed, an accurate, full diagnosis of the disease and its cause just isn’t possible without a microscope!! ..
Taking a skin scrape Taking and preparing a skin scrape involves using a blunt scraper, such as a wooden spatula, to gently take a sample of mucus from either immediately behind the gill cover, alongside the dorsal fin or the base of the tail. The scraper is held at approximately 45 degrees to the body ..
A Distressing Condition Fish gills are susceptible to parasite, bacterial and fungal diseases. Another common condition is hyperplasia, which if not resolved is often fatal. Gill problems are a major cause of fish losses, particularly, it seems, koi. It is a distressing condition to deal with, both for the fish and owner, as too often ..
