Australia's Science Forum

I need to differentiate some live greeblies from the surrounding plant debris, for viewing live under the microscope.
Whats the best stain anyone's used?

If you mean pond water,we don't stain as it is obvious which is which organism....there will be paramecium,euglena,rotifers etc....can use methyl cellulose solution to slow them down.

The Laboratory by barbara dungey has a living cell stain it is bases on methylene blue and is called Vital stain. If you have the book it is on page 131
1g of methylene blue
0.6g sodium chloride
100ml distilled water
dissolve sodium chloride in distilled water and add methyelene blue
place 1 drop of stain on slide and allow to dry , add drop of living culture, cover with cover slip observe

I have my own Euglena and so don't need to stain them as they are just happy swimming around on their own.
I just feed the rice every now and again

Thanks all

Rowyrow

I will make some of that up. Thanks