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Identify What I'm Seeing

Look at a wet mount at 100x first, then 400x. Answer what you see most of. You can go back at any step.

Reference photos

Compare your slide with these examples, then open the page for more.

Stalked ciliate on its stalk next to a floc, with thin Sphaerotilus natans filaments, phase contrast at 400x
Stalked Ciliates
Slipper shaped free-swimming ciliate with two dark round bodies inside, next to a floc, phase contrast
Free-Swimming Ciliates
Rotifer anchored to a floc, with another floc at its head end, phase contrast at 400x
Rotifers
Large naked amoeba next to bacterial floc and a bacterial filament, labeled, phase contrast at 400x
Amoebae
Oval flagellate with one long whip like flagellum among dispersed bacteria, brightfield
Flagellates
Slender nematode worm moving between flocs, phase contrast
Nematodes
Long filaments bridging between several flocs, 100x
Filamentous Organisms
Floc with finger like Zoogloea growth and a nematode inside it, phase contrast
Floc Structure
Field of single rod shaped bacteria with no floc
Dispersed Growth

Photomicrographs from Brad Musick's microscope slide collection.

This is a teaching aid, not a formal identification key. Filament identification to type needs Gram and Neisser stains at 1000x under oil.