Still looks like a tapeworm egg to me (Taenia sp). The photo is a little soft-focused, but it looks like you can see the 3 hooklets. Plus at 400x magnification, that would put the size just about right. Tapeworm eggs are usually pretty hard to find in floats (much easier in direct smear), but I've found them before. Roundworm eggs look similar to that, but at 400x a roundworm egg should appear much larger than that. Roundworm eggs are thinner walled than that, too usually. It's difficult to judge the size, though without a reference in the photo (um reference scale).



I've seen plenty of coccidia (mostly Eimeria sp) in reptile floatations, and none of them looked like a tapeworm egg. They are usually more oval in shape with 4 oocysts. Isospora are generally smaller and rounder than Eimeria, but they have 2 visible oocysts. Another coccidian is Cryptosporidium, but it is much, much smaller and requires special differential staining techniques (Acid-fast) to see.

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• Parasite Egg? From Fecal Float - hjt, Tue Nov 25 00:16:12 2003
• RE: Parasite Egg? From Fecal Float - oldherper, Tue Nov 25 06:17:11 2003
• RE: Parasite Egg? From Fecal Float - ryancentini, Tue Nov 25 22:33:02 2003
• RE: Parasite Egg? From Fecal Float - bigboi, Wed Nov 26 01:36:32 2003
• RE: Parasite Egg? From Fecal Float - bigboi, Wed Nov 26 01:43:40 2003
• RE: Parasite Egg? From Fecal Float - bigboi, Wed Nov 26 01:33:41 2003
• RE: Parasite Egg? From Fecal Float - ryancentini, Wed Nov 26 10:58:52 2003
• RE: Parasite Egg? From Fecal Float - bigboi, Wed Nov 26 12:48:54 2003
• RE: Parasite Egg? From Fecal Float - oldherper, Wed Nov 26 15:10:18 2003
• RE: Parasite Egg? From Fecal Float - bigboi, Wed Nov 26 15:36:01 2003
• RE: Parasite Egg? From Fecal Float - oldherper, Wed Nov 26 16:02:42 2003
• RE: Parasite Egg? From Fecal Float - bigboi, Wed Nov 26 16:07:17 2003
• Here is a pic. of a Caryospora sp oocyst - ryancentini, Wed Nov 26 23:41:02 2003
• Here is a pic of a Taenia sp egg - ryancentini, Wed Nov 26 23:42:37 2003