Microscopes.

[eon aquatics]

How much should I spend on a microscope?

 

[Milingu]

How much should I spend on a microscope?

Depends on what you want. For a first diagnosis and maybe sending pics to a vet you can get decent gear under 200€.

 

[eon aquatics]

For scientific purposes, such as viewing organelles.

 

[eon aquatics]

Anyone have a microscope laboratory or science area with one in your home?
I think viewing aquatic plant cells such as hair algae would be really fun but im not sure where to start, including other equipment needed.

 

[Deadeye]

Bare bones all you really need is slides, coverslips (protect the specimen), and a decent microscope. That will be enough to let you see cool aquatic life in greater detail.
More advanced would get into proper supplies for dehydration, fixation, slicing, and staining, but all of that can get pricey or hard to get without being part of a histology lab.

 

[cockroach]

I spent 60usd on one a few years ago. Does all I need and more.
I got something comparable to this:


I can check dead fish poop for parasites, ID microfauna in water, and other fun stuff.

 

[Heck]

I have 3 microscopes that I like for different purposes (well, one I like for the purpose of "just in case the other two break," I hate that one). And I just scored a used dissecting microscope off ebay because my vet said I had to (it's for looking at horse embryos, should I be lucky enough to flush one).

I never get bored of looking at fish poop, tank water, scale scrapings, etc. A lot of the time I have no idea what I'm looking at, but I can't learn if I don't practice!