Australia's Science Forum

I have a flask of englena, but over the winter school hols it was so cold that when i got back, the water was brown and looked dead.
I checked them under the microscope, and they were still alive, so i made a new medium and transferred some over. The is batch was also doing very well, green and looked healthy.
Then one day i came in and the water was clear, and it was dead again (i had confirmed that the batch was alive and doing well under the miscroscopebefore)

So now the weather is warming up I have checked under the M/S again this afternoon, and i seem to have still live euglena but they are not moving a lot,or quickly...so do YOU think they will 'bounce' back with the warmer weather, or should i prepare another batch now it is warmer.

when I take extractions from the flask i am very careful to always use a new transfer pipette, and never let the whole flask go to a class, just a sample in a tiny beaker....

Hi Narelle

If you want a pure culture of euglena, you can buy from a bio supply company.
But if you dont mind some microbeast cousins in there , you can just chuck out the old infusion, and start afresh with new hay infusions.
I find manure with a bit of straw or hay in it a very helpul edition. After a few days, add a two or 3 grains of cooked, boiled (and cooled) rice.
All the best with this batch

Just start a new batch or let me know and I will bring you some to the meeting

if you could bring me a fresh vial - thanks, will prepare its home now....

Just out of interest, which grades use pracs with these critters?

we use it for year 6 into yr 7 'interest'
year 7 use it for 2nd topic 'life under a microscope'

And various other classes use it bio usually.
Its also great for info / open nights

I have had my beasty's along time started them in 1990 and are still going strong

Thats why i wanna keep these going - as they are a descendant of your original.

How do you keep them? Do you leave them on the bench or do they have to be in the incubator?
Kathryn

i keep mine on a window sill, or near a window, with the blind that never goes down. Its facing west, but doesn't get direct sunlight as we are below road level (if that makes sense)
So it gets natural light, but not direct sunlight - they don't like that. And it seems they dont like it too cold either!
They're fussy....

How often do you change the media? do you use the hay infusion recipe?
Kathryn

i use Noonas recipe - which is rice on the bottom of the (cooked and cooled)
I haven't changed the media.....maybe i should!

My hay infusion now has incredible colonies of euglena.
At St Mary's in 2009 there was a session making euglena colonies but I didn't attned that one.
I seem to remember something about conical flasks and rice but don't know exactly what it was.
Can anyone help?

Use distilled water in a conical flask put in about a teaspoon of rice and boil untill the rice is soft remove from heat add cotten wool stopper.
When cold add the beasty's and cork with cotten wool make sure you put in on a window sill they need light and a little sun but not a lot.
Works every time

Thanks Noona,

This is what I found when I looked at the easy view slides that had been sitting on the bench for about a week.
I wondered why the bottoms had gone green, when I looked under the microscope i discovered why.
Most of the other critters had died but the euglena had multiplied. There were about 6 tubes like this so I didn't want to just wash then out.
I made up some of your solution yesterday and carefully flushed out the tubes into it today.
We'll see how they go.