Scrapings under the microscope -- what does a normal one look like?

[Mmathis]

@Dave 54
@fishin4cars
and not to leave anyone out, @anyoneelseonGFP

This is all still new to me......

WHAT IS IT [a GF scraping] SUPPOSED TO LOOK LIKE IF IT'S NORMAL vs abnormal? IOW, what do you actually SEE on the slide? I don't know what a "NORMAL" one looks like! HELP!!!

I scraped a GF last night. In the past, with other GF, I usually don't get much mucus/slime coat at all. But this guy had A LOT!

I looked at it under the scope, but I have no idea what "normal" is supposed to look like, so have no idea what I was seeing.

It was just roundish globs that reminded me of fat molecules [and yes, I did add a drop of water, and I did use a cover slip]. I didn't see anything that was mobile, or anything that looked like the pictures.

After about 15 minutes, I did spot a circular area [very tiny on highest mag] that appeared to have tiny dark dots inside -- and the dots almost seemed to be quivering [but that could have been external movement -- user error].

 

[Dave 54]

Did you happen to take a photograph of this TurtleMommy you often do see the odd parasite on a slide as most ponds have them, its when they appear in greater numbers that you know you have a problem.
If you didnt see anything that was Mobile then I'd say that your fish doesnt have any in reality we need to put up a video of slides with each and every parasite on them and as to how they move sadly the photo's can be misleading like that .

Dave

 

[Mmathis]

Did you happen to take a photograph of this TurtleMommy you often do see the odd parasite on a slide as most ponds have them, its when they appear in greater numbers that you know you have a problem.
If you didnt see anything that was Mobile then I'd say that your fish doesnt have any in reality we need to put up a video of slides with each and every parasite on them and as to how they move sadly the photo's can be misleading like that .

Dave

No, no pics. My scope doesn't and I've tried with my iPhone & iPad.... I wish I coulda.

But what does a NORMAL scraping look like -- just, what would you see if you didn't see anything?

 

[fishin4cars]

Normal as Dave said will have a number of things in the slide but nothing that stands out over all the rest. an outbreak will have lots of one or two things on the slide. unless your looking for something in particular like gill flukes, the easiest thing to look for is large numbers and then try to identify. I suggest http://koiorganisationinternational.org/?q=catalog/text-books-courses for a great book on identifying and treating goldfish and Koi. One of the most up to date and most comprehensive books available on the market here in the states that is pretty easy to obtain. There are other great books but some just simply are hard to get your hands on, others are good but out of date and some simply aren't available here in the US or if they are, VERY rare to find.

 

[Dave 54]

I suddenly remembered that I had video clips that I saved off some time ago now TurtleMommy so here you are it took me a while searching through my vast favorites files but I finally located what your needing to see video wise of under your microscope
It covers all the ones I posted in stills form annd I hope this will give you the confidence you need to identify what your looking for in future TurtleMommy a rouges gallery of video nasties :-
Plus one video goody of a cute little guy the Plumatella who lives in some filters and is on our side

http://www.fishdoc.co.uk/video/fishmovies.htm

Hope this helps you in future


Dave

 

[Mmathis]

@Dave 54
For some reason I can't view the videos, but it may be because I'm on the iPad. I'll ask Hubby to check it out for me when he gets home.