RE: NANFA-- need help on preserving fish heads & skeletons

Denkhaus, Robert (DenkhaR_at_Ci.Fort-Worth.TX.US)
Tue, 22 May 2001 10:26:15 -0500

>
> Thanks for the advice, Charles. Also, thanks Bonnie & Bruce.
> I had considered the red ants, too, Charles, but thought a
> rangey ol' coyote would probably come along and drag the
> carcass away from the ant hill and then help himself to it
> once said ants departed. I know where there are a couple of
> carp carcasses, so may try different methods. As for Bruce's
> suggestion, I know where there's a badger carcass if I can
> stomach the smell; I may get my larvae from it. If I can't
> handle that, I'll send for the bug kits as suggested by
> Bonnie. And actually, the carp have not progressed in their
> decomposition to the state of putrid fish....yet.
>

Bruce,

Make a cage out of hardware cloth or similar material to put the carcass in
and then stake it down to keep larger scavengers from destroying or carrying
off the specimen. By the way, for those in fire ant range, the invasive
little bastards are excellent for cleaning skeletons although they are so
proficient and fast that you have to keep a close eye on the specimen or
they will destroy it.

Also, to save yourself the from potential digestive distress from handling
overripe roadkill, ignore the fresh ones completely. As several people have
said, dermestids prefer their carcasses dried. Take a walk down the road
and look for a roadkill that has been cleaned to the point of just being
bones and hide. Throw the whole thing in a 10 gallon aquarium or a
rubbermaid tub with some cardboard substrate and the specimen (dried) that
you want cleaned and voila, you have a dermestid colony. I started one a
few years ago using a mummified cat. If you buy the starter colonies, it
will take awhile to get the colony up and functioning.

Rob Denkhaus
Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge
"El muerto a la sepultura, el vivo a la travesura"
"The dead to burial, the living to mischief"

> -----Original Message-----
> From: BR0630_at_aol.com
> Sent: Monday, May 21, 2001 3:06 PM
> To: nanfa_at_aquaria.net
> Subject: Re: NANFA-- need help on preserving fish heads & skeletons
>
>
> In a message dated Mon, 21 May 2001 3:29:38 PM Eastern
> Daylight Time, "dakota" <dakota6_at_mindspring.com> writes:
>
> << Not sure if you have the big Red Ants there like I have
> down here but I think they are called Harvester Ants..... As
> a boy I would place dead frogs,fish,and anything else I
> wanted the skeleton from, on one of
> their mounds and in a few weeks it would be cleaned to the bone.
> Charles Anderton
> Round Rock, Texas>>
> Meridian, Idaho
>
>
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/ For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org