These are the live-cell imaging data of the methylcellulose experiments for the Energetics of the Microsporidian Polar Tube Invasion Machinery (https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.86638.1) manuscript. These data show A. algerae microsporidian spores firing their polar tube in various methylcellulose conditions. The files are organized by the percent methylcellulose (MC) in the given imaging condition (0%, 0.5%, 1%, 2%, 3%, 4% MC). For example, "MC_4.0_Spore-7_(60_Subset_Crop_3)" is a video of a spore firing its polar tube in 4% methylcellulose. Each spore in each MC condition has a spore number and a unique identifier.