Step-by-step guides for collecting microscopic organisms from local moss or pond water and breeding them safely in small, home-friendly spaces.
Guide Beginner Discover how to culture Cosmarium—a beautiful, single-celled green alga shaped like an hourglass or drum—using simple liquid fertilizer and LED light.
Guide Beginner Learn how to collect, culture, and observe Spirostomum, a giant single-celled organism that contracts to 1/4 of its length in 0.01 seconds.
![[The Microscopic Straw Hat] Arcella (Testate Amoeba) Sampling, Culturing & Shell Observation Guide](/images/arcella.png)
Guide Beginner Discover Arcella, the testate amoeba with a shell resembling a straw hat. Learn how to collect, culture, and observe their pseudopodia and gas vacuoles.
Guide Beginner A close relative of Paramecium, Colpidium multiplies rapidly in organic-rich water. Learn the secret recipe to culture them at home using simple rice grains.
Guide Beginner Discover how to collect and observe Chaetonotus (gastrotrichs). Learn how their bowling-pin bodies move and get tips on slowing them down for microscope study.
Guide Intermediate Discover Difflugia, the testate amoeba that glues sand grains to build artistic shells. Learn how to collect, culture, and observe their pseudopodia.
Guide Beginner Learn about Euplotes, the walking single-celled ciliate! A comprehensive guide on their ecology, how to collect them, and home culturing tips.
![[The Origin of Superfoods] Spirulina Culturing & Microscope Observation | How to Make Baking Soda Culture Water to Grow Spiral Cells](/images/spirulina.png)
Guide Intermediate Spirulina is a beautiful spiral microalga. Learn how to mix a high-alkaline baking soda and salt culture water, and how to observe its spring structure.
Guide Intermediate Learn how to collect, culture, and observe Bursaria, the giant ciliate that swallows paramecia whole. Keep your culture stable with our step-by-step guide.
Guide Advanced Discover Lacrymaria olor, the ciliate that hunts by extending its neck like a swan. Learn collection tips, observation methods, and photography hacks.
Guide Beginner Learn to collect, culture, and observe Coleps, the armored ciliate that spirals rapidly. Discover how they scavenge organic matter under your microscope.
Guide Beginner Culture Green Paramecium (Paramecium bursaria) harboring symbiotic Chlorella using windowsill light. Learn easy plastic bottle culturing tips.
Guide Beginner Learn how to collect Nostoc cyanobacteria from dry ground or after rain, and observe their beautiful beaded cell chains and heterocysts under a microscope.
Guide Beginner Reaching up to 3mm and contracting to 1/3 of its length in an instant, Spirostomum is a giant ciliate. Learn about its ecology and how to observe it.
Guide Intermediate Learn to collect, breed, and observe Cyclops (copepods). Explore their single-eye anatomy, twin egg sacs, and get tips on photographing their fast jumps.
Guide Advanced Learn to culture Didinium, the ravenous ciliate that eats only Paramecium. Get tips on triggering and photographing its dynamic predation under your microscope.
Guide Beginner Learn how to culture Chlorella, a key single-celled alga, using a DIY plastic bottle bioreactor and liquid fertilizer. Great live feed for micro-fauna!
Guide Advanced A guide to culturing Noctiluca scintillans, the marine bioluminescent plankton, and hacks for capturing its blue glow with smartphone cameras.
![[Microscopic Rafts] Scenedesmus Culturing & Observation Guide | The Mystery of Phenotypic Plasticity Triggered by Daphnia](/images/scenedesmus.png)
Guide Beginner Scenedesmus is a unique green alga made of 4 cells with spines at the ends. Learn how to find, culture, and perform experiments to trigger its spine growth.
Guide Beginner Learn to collect and observe Pediastrum (star-shaped green algae) with stunning geometric patterns. Discover habitats and microscopy hacks.
Guide Intermediate Learn how to collect, culture, and observe Actinophrys (Sun Animalcules), beautiful single-celled organisms with needle-like axopodia resembling a tiny sun.
Guide Beginner Learn how to collect, culture, and observe Closterium, a crescent-shaped alga. View gypsum crystals dancing via Brownian motion under your microscope.
![[The Mystery of the Spring] Step-by-Step Guide to Collecting and Culturing Vorticella (Bell Animalcule) with Ultra-fast Contraction at Home](/images/vorticella.png)
Guide Intermediate Vorticella is a mysterious single-celled organism with a bell-shaped body and a spring-like stalk. Learn how to safely collect, culture, and observe it.
Guide Intermediate A guide to culturing and observing Blepharisma, the pink single-celled ciliate. Learn about its photophobia and giant cannibalistic form.
![[The Intelligent Single Cell] Complete Guide to Culturing and Observing Slime Mold (Physarum polycephalum) with Oatmeal at Home](/images/myxomycetes.png)
Guide Beginner Slime mold has no brain, yet it solves mazes and designs optimal networks. Learn how to safely culture and observe this intelligent single-celled organism.
Guide Beginner Learn how to stably culture Amoeba—a shapeshifting, single-celled organism that crawls using pseudopodia—using simple boiled rice grains and mineral water.
Guide Beginner Discover Vorticella with its geometric form and unique movements. Learn a foolproof approach to finding and observing them under a microscope at home.
Guide Beginner Discover and observe Coleps, a single-celled organism with a geometric shape and unique movement, in your local water environments using a microscope.
Guide Beginner Discover and observe Phacus, a single-celled organism with a geometric shape and unique movement, in your local water environments using a microscope.
Guide Intermediate Discover and observe Synura, a single-celled organism with a geometric shape and unique movement, in your local water environments using a microscope.
Guide Beginner Discover and observe Pandorina, a single-celled organism with a geometric shape and unique movement, in your local water environments using a microscope.
Guide Beginner Discover and observe Gonium, a single-celled organism with a geometric shape and unique movement, in your local water environments using a microscope.
Guide Intermediate Discover and observe Closterium, a single-celled organism with a geometric shape and unique movement, in your local water environments using a microscope.
Guide Beginner Discover and observe Anabaena, a single-celled organism with a geometric shape and unique movement, in your local water environments using a microscope.
Guide Beginner Discover and observe Oscillatoria, a single-celled organism with a geometric shape and unique movement, in your local water environments using a microscope.
Guide Intermediate Discover and observe Scenedesmus, a single-celled organism with a geometric shape and unique movement, in your local water environments using a microscope.
Guide Beginner Discover and observe Pediastrum, a single-celled organism with a geometric shape and unique movement, in your local water environments using a microscope.
Guide Beginner Discover Actinophrys with its geometric form and unique movements. Learn a foolproof approach to finding and observing them under a microscope at home.
Guide Beginner Chlorella features a geometric form and unique movement. Here is a foolproof approach to finding it in local waters and capturing it under a microscope.
Guide Intermediate Saccharomyces features a geometric form and unique movement. Here is a foolproof approach to finding it in local waters and capturing it under a microscope.
Guide Beginner Lactobacillus features a geometric form and unique movement. Here is a foolproof approach to finding it in local waters and capturing it under a microscope.
Guide Beginner Penicillium features a geometric form and unique movement. Here is a foolproof approach to finding it in local waters and capturing it under a microscope.
Guide Intermediate Aspergillus features a geometric form and unique movement. Here is a foolproof approach to finding it in local waters and capturing it under a microscope.
Guide Beginner Gastrotricha features a geometric form and unique movement. Here is a foolproof approach to finding it in local waters and capturing it under a microscope.
Guide Intermediate Ostracoda features a geometric form and unique movement. Here is a foolproof approach to finding it in local waters and capturing it under a microscope.
Guide Intermediate Discover Chlamydomonas with its geometric form and unique movements. Learn a foolproof approach to finding and observing them under a microscope at home.
Guide Beginner Discover Cosmarium with its geometric form and unique movements. Learn a foolproof approach to finding and observing them under a microscope at home.
Guide Beginner Discover Paramecium bursaria with its geometric form and green symbiotic algae. Learn a foolproof approach to finding and observing them under a microscope.
Guide Intermediate Discover Colpidium with its geometric form and unique movements. Learn a foolproof approach to finding and observing them under a microscope at home.
Guide Beginner Discover Didinium nasutum with its geometric form and unique movements. Learn a foolproof approach to finding and observing them under a microscope at home.
Guide Intermediate Discover Stylonychia with its geometric form and unique movements. Learn a foolproof approach to finding and observing them under a microscope at home.
Guide Beginner Grow Daphnia magna (giant water fleas) rapidly at home. Learn the step-by-step culturing recipes using yeast and green water to boost your aquarium live feed.
Guide Beginner Diatoms build exquisite silica shells. Learn our custom silicate-rich medium recipe and microscope lighting hacks to grow and observe these glass gems.
Guide Beginner Culture Euglena at home! A complete guide to growing and observing this mysterious hybrid microorganism that both swims and photosynthesizes.
Guide Intermediate Learn to collect Hydra, the freshwater anemone with stinging tentacles, and observe its incredible regeneration and asexual reproduction at home.
Guide Beginner A guide to culturing C. elegans, the Nobel-prize-winning model nematode, at home using simple bananas and dry yeast. Learn setup and observation hacks.
Guide Beginner Learn to culture Paramecium easily at home using plastic bottles and rice bran or Ebios tablets, plus tips for observing cilia movement and cell division.
Guide Intermediate Learn to collect Planarians, the flatworms with miraculous regeneration abilities, and perform safe cutting and observation experiments at home.
![[Microscopic Rotary Wheels] Techniques for Collecting Rotifers from Pond Water and Long-term Culturing with Yeast](/images/rotifer.png)
Guide Beginner Rotifers are microscopic organisms that rotate wheel-like cilia to suck in food. Learn how to collect and culture them as fish fry feed or micro-pets.
![[The Green Spiral Staircase] Tips for Long-Term Maintenance and Observing Conjugation in Spirogyra (Pond Scum)](/images/spirogyra.png)
Guide Beginner Though hated in aquariums, Spirogyra shows a beautiful green spiral staircase under a microscope. Learn how to keep them clean and observe conjugation.
![[The Giant Micro-Trumpet] Collecting the Glowing Blue Giant Single-Celled Stentor and Tips for Water Quality Maintenance](/images/stentor.png)
Guide Intermediate Stentor is a giant single-celled organism reaching up to 2mm, visible to the naked eye. Learn how to collect and maintain this beautiful blue-green trumpet.
Guide Beginner Learn how to collect and observe tardigrades (water bears) from moss on your balcony. Discover the secrets of cryptobiosis and tips for home culturing.
![[The Green Spaceship] Volvox Breeding & Asexual Reproduction Guide | How to Make DIY Culture Water](/images/volvox_structure.png)
Guide Intermediate Volvox is the most beautiful plankton under the microscope. Learn how to culture them with a 10,000x dilution of HYPONeX and observe daughter colonies.