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

Bonnie Ullmann (ullmann_at_uoneuro.uoregon.edu)
Mon, 21 May 2001 12:18:03 -0700

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Now, this is something I know a little about. You'd want dermestid
beetles. You could get them from Connecticutt Valley Biologicals,
catalogue # L48; 800-628-7748
or from Carolina Biological; catalogue# F6-L882; 800-334-5551-2. This
is a kit for about $25.

These will get you a nice fish skeleton, no smell. Drying the fish
out first by sun-drying (or using the family food dehydrator,
depending on your family) will keep the beetles the happiest, since
they are prone to moisture-caused fungal problems. You have to be a
little watchful or they will start in on the ligaments and sinews
that hold the whole skeleton together.

I wouldn't recommend putting the beetle container anywhere where
visitors to your home will be. Our lab has a small problem of going
out to get lunch at a restaurant, forgetting ourselves a bit and
before you know it, the conversation turns to flesh-eating beetles.
Then there is the problem of what to feed them when the fish is
gone.....

Good luck!
sorry this is lunch time in some parts of the list!
Bonnie

>I hope I'm not sending this twice. I would like to know if some of
>those "lab" beetles that clean up flesh would clean a fish carcass
>of all but the skeleton? I have in mind the skeleton of a large
>spawned out female carp. Does anyone know whereabouts I might get
>some of these beetles?
>Bruce Scott
>Meridian, Idaho
>
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