RE: NANFA-- Fish viewer

Roselawn Museum (roselawn_at_mindspring.com)
Mon, 03 Dec 2001 09:55:05 -0500

Ken, Josh, & others...

Sorry if my description was a bit fuzzy. Maybe this will help.
Unfortunately, as with most transplant donors, the original piece of
equipment is now somewhere in the grand scheme of recycling. However, if
you go into any office supply store and look in the section where they keep
desk accessories, you'll often find these wedge-shaped plastic containers
that are sectioned off by size to hold your pencils, pens, paperclips,
sticky notes, etc. The trick for me was to find one that was transparent
and didn't have holes in the bottom (many do, I don't know why). I selected
the chamber that was apparently designed for index cards and cut away the
rest. BTW, these things sell for between $6 & $15. I got lucky and found
mine at a thrift store for $0.79 (then, had to wrestle it away from my wife
who was purring, "Oh, how cute!"). Anyway, the sections in the wedge slant
upwards, giving the impression of tiers. The section I chose was on the
back row. This was not only the deepest, but provided one smooth side even
after the cutting. The cut side was the one I painted, after masking off
the rest. I suppose that someone with superior tools could salvage some of
the other chambers, but they would have to have a way to polish the cut
sides to be of any use for photography. I also can't claim complete credit
for the idea. I came up with it after looking at Dave Neely's viewer which
is made of transparent, box-type picture frames. The advantage of his
design is that he made one of the corners become the bottom. This V-shape
keeps fish (especially darters) from settling on a flat surface. The
advantage of mine is...it doesn't leak. (-: (Sorry Dave.) For those of you
who asked, I've sent you a pic of the viewer.

Steven A. Ellis
Kennesaw, GA

At 01:45 PM 11/30/01 -0800, you wrote:
>Steven,
>I like the photo, as in your next message. I wonder if you could either
>show the "desk set" or describe it further. I'm a little slow as most
>folks know, so I am not familiar with what you have described so far.
>Ken-In-The-Desert
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Roselawn Museum [SMTP:roselawn_at_mindspring.com]
>Sent: Friday, November 30, 2001 12:51 PM
>To: nanfa_at_aquaria.net
>Subject: NANFA-- Fish viewer
>
>

/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
/"Unless stated otherwise, comments made on this list do not necessarily
/ reflect the beliefs or goals of the North American Native Fishes
/ Association"
/ This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes Association
/ nanfa_at_aquaria.net. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get help, send the word
/ subscribe, unsubscribe, or help in the body (not subject) of an email to
/ nanfa-request_at_aquaria.net. For a digest version, send the command to
/ nanfa-digest-request_at_aquaria.net instead.
/ For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org