Preservation Techniques - Wet Specimens

[PlasticGalaxy]

If anyone here has any knowledge on preserving (dead) animals please feel welcome to add input. Today's topic is preservation - as I'm sure the title implies.

For a while now, I've been considering ways in which I could preserve my darling plecos and shrimp when they pass, and was wondering if anyone had any advice. I currently have a couple shrimp molts kept in a jar of surgical spirit - which I believe is 70% alcohol, but please correct me if I'm wrong - and have had them since early April. In those six months they've deterioriated very little, with only a few signs of age through discolouration. While I'd definitely need quite a large jar for the sailfin plec and a whole truck-load of surgical spirit, would this method of preservation stand the test of time?

I've always been fascinated with wet specimens but you rarely see them for plecs - let alone plecs of the size I'm hoping my dear sailfin gets to. I would love to preserve him when he does inevitably go, and the same goes for my giant fan shrimp.

If anyone has any advice of information to add, please let me know! If there are any better alternatives for preservation, please also clue me into them. Thanks!

 

[FishHobby99]

No idea! Ask my technical assistant Ms. Google. She knows everything.

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

I worry about you dude....




Welcome back by the way

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

Your moults will not have deteriorated because they are simple chitin.
Whilst alcohol will serve for a time, you will, in effect, create a fermentation and get fish wine!

For proper preservation, you need to 'fix' the corpse and to do this, you'll need to make up a formalin solution, using 10% Formaldehyde and 90% water.
You'd leave the body pickling for 3 days, unless it's bigger then 10cm, in which case a week is required.
Note that for bigger bodies, you need to create a slice into the body cavity to ensure the formalin penetrates the whole body, or rot will occur later. Technicians would normally inject the formalin into the body cavities.
Once the body has been pickled, you need to sit it in water and change this water every two or three days, to carefully rinse out the formalin.
When this is done, you can then move the corpse to ethyl alcohol for long-term preservation.

NOTE that formalin is very nasty stuff and needs to be disposed of responsibly and not just poured down a sink! Your local pharmacist may be able to assist you with this.

 

[Sgooosh]

Your moults will not have deteriorated because they are simple chitin.
Whilst alcohol will serve for a time, you will, in effect, create a fermentation and get fish wine!

For proper preservation, you need to 'fix' the corpse and to do this, you'll need to make up a formalin solution, using 10% Formaldehyde and 90% water.
You'd leave the body pickling for 3 days, unless it's bigger then 10cm, in which case a week is required.
Note that for bigger bodies, you need to create a slice into the body cavity to ensure the formalin penetrates the whole body, or rot will occur later. Technicians would normally inject the formalin into the body cavities.
Once the body has been pickled, you need to sit it in water and change this water every two or three days, to carefully rinse out the formalin.
When this is done, you can then move the corpse to ethyl alcohol for long-term preservation.

NOTE that formalin is very nasty stuff and needs to be disposed of responsibly and not just poured down a sink! Your local pharmacist may be able to assist you with this.

f-fish wine...

 

[FishHobby99]

Your moults will not have deteriorated because they are simple chitin.
Whilst alcohol will serve for a time, you will, in effect, create a fermentation and get fish wine!

For proper preservation, you need to 'fix' the corpse and to do this, you'll need to make up a formalin solution, using 10% Formaldehyde and 90% water.
You'd leave the body pickling for 3 days, unless it's bigger then 10cm, in which case a week is required.
Note that for bigger bodies, you need to create a slice into the body cavity to ensure the formalin penetrates the whole body, or rot will occur later. Technicians would normally inject the formalin into the body cavities.
Once the body has been pickled, you need to sit it in water and change this water every two or three days, to carefully rinse out the formalin.
When this is done, you can then move the corpse to ethyl alcohol for long-term preservation.

NOTE that formalin is very nasty stuff and needs to be disposed of responsibly and not just poured down a sink! Your local pharmacist may be able to assist you with this.

I worry about you dude....




Welcome back by the way

I’m hoping we don’t see him on Dateline

 

[OliveFish05]

f-fish wine...

Time for the barf emoji.....

 

[FishHobby99]

Time for the barf emoji.....

 

[Caesar]

What about epoxy? I think that would likely work.

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

This all sounds too complicated....why don't you just phone Darth Vader and ask him for some carbonite and freeze your plec in that? Then you could turn it into a bottle opener like this..

This one is cast iron but you get the idea useful and doesn't smell

 

[itiwhetu]

I had a Keyhole cichlid that I preserved in Formalin; I think it is the only way. I wonder what happened to him, for the life of me a can't remember.

 

[Deleted member 149562]

How about using resin?

Years ago there used to be a kit that could be bought which gave all the required stuff to make clear resin ornaments etc

Outlined here...now you can use plants and flowers in resin, maybe it is also possible to do the same with fish etc too. Doesn't lose any vibrancy of colour and is pretty easy to do

Create a personal gift with resin paperweights

Resin paperweights are so cool and fun. They are a great way to make something personal, a great gift idea. You can embed just about anything in resin.

resincraftsblog.com

Obviously larger moulds would be needed for fish but the principle would be the same....along the lines of animals and insects caught in amber, using resin would keep them preserved and in full colour without any nasty whiffs.

 

[Colin_T]

If you use formaldehyde to pickle something, it destroys the DNA.
You can use Alcohol to preserve things and it doesn't destroy the DNA.

I'm pretty sure they used 25% alcohol and 75% distilled water to pickle fish. Put the fish in the solution for 24 hours and then take it out and put it in a new solution (same percentages). The fish 24 hour soak kills stuff on and in the fish and usually turns the eyes white. The second solution is the one the fish remains in.

The container must be air tight and they usually top up or replace the solution every few years.

------------------
I know people that have preserved fish in plastic resin. The fish needs to be sterilised first by soaking in alcohol or formaldehyde.

A few people I knew used hair spray on dead crustaceans and the shells of crustaceans. They pickled the shell, let it dry, then set it on a block of wood. When it was in the correct position, they spray it with hair spray. They let it dry and added more coats. After about 10 coats of hair spray they let it dry for 24 hours and put it on their shelf.

@Barry Tetra, one of the young guys on the forum, does taxidermy and has preserved fish. One of his threads is below. Caution, it's a bit gory.

My hobby...

Please note that no animals have been harmed; they have all died from natural causes. Some people may find the images upsetting; if you are likely to be distressed, please do not read any further. Members are cautioned that abusive comments made to Barry Tetra or about taxidermy practices in...

www.fishforums.net

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

I had a Keyhole cichlid that I preserved in Formalin; I think it is the only way. I wonder what happened to him, for the life of me a can't remember.

You lost a pickled fish?

 

[itiwhetu]

You lost a pickled fish?

I'm afraid so. This thread has me wondering because I also had pickled these Kuhli loaches, as I was excited that they spawned but never got any young.