In theory, a good idea. But many fish, especially colorful ones,
lose their beautiful colors and subtle detail under stress. That's
why I gave up on this technique.
A friend of mine, a professional fish collector and dealer, shared
the technique that he and his photographer use for documenting
his stock. They set up a small studio tank (size depends on fish,
I think he mentioned 5 and 10g), and let the fish hang out in it for
several hours so it gets used to the new environment. By the time
they're ready to shoot, the fish's colors are back and it's behaving
"normally."
A small studio tank is not as restrictive as the narrow photo tanks
used by some people, but you get more natural shots of the fish.
You'll waste some film on butt shots, half-fish, and the usual
depth-of-field problems, but a few should turn out OK. It's also
cheaper to use slide film. (But if you prefer print film, have the lab
develop the film without making slides, inspect the negatives
with a loupe and pick out the ones you want to have printed.) His
photographer uses Fuji Velvia--a film I really like because it has
nice color saturation and has given me outstanding results in my
bird photography work. But some people think it's overkill and
prefer the professional Kodak brands. To each their own, I guess.
He also uses 2 remotely-placed flashes at an angle to the glass to
cut out shadow.
Good luck,
shireen
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