[NHCOLL-L:5871] Re: Curation Tactic Inquiries

[Dirk Neumann]

Dear Kathy, Phyllis

this definitely looks like Bouins fixation. It might be possible that 
the specimens (or part of the originally Bouins fixed specimens) have 
been transferred into an other preservative/ethanol, which results in a 
more or less (faintly) stained preservative due to Bouins dissolving 
from these specimens.

For the spicules, you could either place high quality plastic vials 
inside the jar containing the corresponding specimens to avoid 
evaporation losses. Especially cheap plastic vials and designed vials 
designed for cryogenic storage tend to have massive evaporation problems 
at ambient temperatures. Other possibility would be storage in 
borosilicate glass tubes and close tubes with cotton-stoppers wrapped 
with Japanese tissue paper. Medical cotton following DIN 61 640-A should 
be preferred as this cotton does not include any additives. This method 
is recommended by the colleagues from the Museum of Natural History in 
Berlin.

This and further recommendations have been published by Birger Neuhaus 
Et al.  in an project report recently, however results are currently 
available only in German @ 
http://193.175.110.9/hornemann/german/epubl_txt/2012Neuhaus_KUR.pdf

Soda lime glass tubes have a very reactive alkaline surface and hence it 
should be avoided to place tiny / delicate specimens in such tubes 
because of the bad object / tube surface ratio.

Hope this helps

Dirk



Am 06.03.2012 01:46, schrieb Phyllis Sun:
> HERE YOU GOOOOOOO
>
>
> Greetings,
>
> My name is Kathy and I'm a curatorial manager at the Natural History
> Museum of LA County at the Marine Biodiversity Center. While going
> through and re-curating older sections of our collections, I ran
> across two rather odd occurrences and am seeking some advice.
>
> The first is this bright lime green solution in a number of jars
> preserving specimens. At first, I thought it might be Bouins, but
> Bouins tends to be more yellow based while this is radioactive green.
> Does anybody have any idea what liquid is being used? Perhaps Bouins
> mixed with something? The data on the jars are not that informative,
> only containing either a station number or species name. Some
> specimens found have been zooplankton, parasitic isopods, and
> euphausiid frags, but there's no real pattern. A picture of one of the
> jars is attached.
>
> My second question regards sponges. We had a visiting scientist did
> some research work on some sponges we have. He separated the spicules
> entirely from the sponge and preserved them in a tiny 2mL plastic
> screw-top vials. The vials contain only the spicules themselves, no
> tissue at all. The problem is the alcohol levels recedes rather
> quickly in the 2mL vials and I'm wary of putting them in a
> cotton-stopped glass vials since there's a chance the spicules will
> get stuck in the cotton. Does anybody know of a better procedure?
>
> Please let me know, I'd appreciate any help or advice.
>
> Best,
>
> Kathy Omura
>
>
>


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Dirk Neumann

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Dirk Neumann

Tel: +49-89-8107-111
Fax: +49-89-8107-300
email: Dirk.Neumann(a)zsm.mwn.de

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