[Nhcoll-l] Vial jar system for easier specimen collection maintenance

Fri Mar 18 12:02:06 EDT 2016

If you find yourself getting really excited by all the discussion surrounding storage methods of tiny, fluid preserved organisms, let me remind you the deadline to apply for the VIMS Larval Fish Workshop is April 1, 2016. During the workshop we will talk in depth about the pros and cons of various storage methods for larval fishes, with presentations by collections managers/curators of museums with large larval fish holdings (e.g., The Burke Museum, SEAMAP, The Australian Museum, The Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard, VIMS, etc.).

The workshop will be held from June 6-17, 2016, at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science in Gloucester Point, VA. The workshop is free. However, participants will need to cover their own travel and lodging expenses. See below for the announcement or visit: https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.vims.edu_research_facilities_fishcollection_larval-5Fworkshop_index.php&d=AwIF-g&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=sqdb4NidtOfNBBX4YHF0BX4DGnIrbKQS7An3swviMEg&s=9q-8SnC0Zh-tNAtXioNiTmUDzSbRzok5RPAyd0Eb2o0&e= 

Attached is a tentative schedule of daily events for the workshop.

Best,
Sarah

Larval Fish Workshop, June 6-17, 2016

The Virginia Institute of Marine Science Nunnally Ichthyology Collection in Gloucester Point, Virginia, is home to a large ichthyoplankton collection. This collection contains samples from the tropical and northern Pacific Ocean, the Southern Ocean, the Amazon Plume, Sargasso Sea, the Caribbean, the Mid- and South Atlantic bights, and Chesapeake Bay. As part of our current NSF CSBR grant, we are hosting a larval-fish workshop from June 6-17, 2016.

Workshop Goals. During the 2-week workshop, participants will learn how to sort and identify larval fishes, acquire the knowledge needed to prepare, store, and curate larval-fish collections, and gain imaging techniques for larval fishes.

The focus of the first week of the workshop will be on samples from the Southern Ocean and western tropical Atlantic (in and adjacent to the Amazon River plume and the Caribbean Sea). The second week will emphasize samples from the Sargasso Sea, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Maine.

Participants will sort and identify ichthyoplankton samples to the family level under the guidance of 5 expert larval fish taxonomists: Drs. Jeff Leis (University of Tasmania), William Watson (Southwest Fisheries Science Center, NOAA), Nalani Schnell (Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle), G. David Johnson (Smithsonian Institution), and Peter Konstantinidis (VIMS).

The workshop is open to students, collection managers, curators, and other museum and research professionals. The workshop is free; however, participants will be responsible for covering the cost of transportation, lodging, and meals.

The workshop is limited to 12 participants. Applicants can attend both weeks of the workshop or either the first or second week. However, preference will be given to individuals that are able to attend both weeks. Applications are due on April 1st, 2016 and a notification of acceptance will be made by April 15th, 2016. If interested please contact Dr. Peter Konstantinidis.

Sarah K. Huber, Ph.D.
Curatorial Associate, VIMS Nunnally Ichthyology Collection
Office 804.684.7104 | Collection 804.684.7285
skhuber at vims.edu | www.vims.edu
PO Box 1346 | 1375 Greate Rd., Gloucester Pt., VA 23062

________________________________________
From: nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu [nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] on behalf of William Shepherd [w.shepherd at swiftcurrent.ca]
Sent: Friday, March 18, 2016 10:51 AM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Vial jar system for easier specimen collection maintenance

Hello Stephen,

        I've been watching this discussion with much interest. My current institution does not have any wet specimens but my previous one had a few hundred, though these were largely single specimens in their own container ranging from human organs to insects and animal fetuses. I think your bag method is really ingenious and deals with many of the issues in the various discussions around the 'proper' way to do this. The only questions I had, have you had any issue with specimens on the bottom being damaged from the weight of the items above it since the bags don't have much crush strength? While many of these specimens are quite light and will be somewhat buoyant I was thinking there must be a greater pressure on the bottom specimens. Is there any issue with physical damage when it comes to retrieval of specimens from the larger containers? We'd all take care but pulling bags in and out versus vials seems like it may put additional strain on the physical integrity of the specimens.

        I'd love to hear, as likely the list as a whole, your thoughts. Again, great idea.

William Shepherd
Collections Officer
Swift Current Museum
44 Robert Street West
Swift Current, Saskatchewan
S9H 4M9
Phone: 306-778-4815
Fax: 306-778-4818

-----Original Message-----
From: nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu [mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Rogers, Steve
Sent: Friday, March 18, 2016 7:24 AM
To: joachim.haendel at zns.uni-halle.de; nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Vial jar system for easier specimen collection maintenance

At the Carnegie various methods have been used in the last 35 years I have worked in the collection using the vial jar system to house removed gonads of herps, anuran eggs sets removed from specimens, stomach contenst, or small tadpoles. Sometimes the method is exactly as that used by Lex, but failures included vials topped with old bakelight, as did many polyethylene type lids. Some subsets, like tutle hatching clutches, were put with a thin plastic bag cloased with a rubber-band, and then multiple clutches put in a larger container. The rubber band degraded and became goopy, making a larger mess.

Last year when cataloguing a large series of sets of tadpoles in alcohol, and not wanting to use (or have on hand) circa 300 of the 200ml parfait jars, I began using a variant of the bag system for groups of tadpoles. Small jars, perhaps 10 ml volume were filled with the group of tadpoles, and then placed in a plastic bag which was sealed with a heat sealer. The resultant bag had a very small hole placed on top and then by placing it in larger fluid contained jar, all the air could be forced out and multiple jars could be placed in one 2-liter or gallon jar. This system, perhaps not tried elsewhere, eliminates the large cotton wad on this larger jar, keeps all contents of a series of tadpoles from the same species together in a single easily checked larger jar, and saves use of hundreds of the smallest gasket jar we have. It also would prevent losing or mixing contents should the larger jar break.

It always seemed excessive to use 200 ml jars to house three or four very small tadpoles, especially when faced with very limited space and small budgets.

Stephen P. Rogers (Mr.)
Collection Manager of Section of Birds
and Section of Amphibians and Reptiles
Carnegie Museum of Natural History
4400 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh PA 15213-4080
Phone: 412-622-3255 or 3258
Email: rogerss at CarnegieMNH.org
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.carnegiemnh.org_birds_index.html&d=AwIFAg&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=Bll6S23OIAMJ_EhpqsR6GI6XelpWWsckNrpUAI6Woz8&s=nGPknqf3jpx8g4xRvkyHbrUUttnrJcgjbH_Yp7oijsc&e=
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.carnegiemnh.org_herps_index.htm&d=AwIFAg&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=Bll6S23OIAMJ_EhpqsR6GI6XelpWWsckNrpUAI6Woz8&s=ntrauK8ywPefR-saAOuM_qyW3kV7vSDa5MLL7hc42nM&e=
***************************************************
The views, opinions, and judgments expressed in this message are solely those of the author. The message contents have not been reviewed or approved by Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh
***************************************************
________________________________________
From: nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu [nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] on behalf of Joachim Haendel [joachim.haendel at zns.uni-halle.de]
Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2016 3:19 AM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Vial jar system for easier specimen collection maintenance

Well - but on the other hand there is a risk that the objects get tangled in the cotton plugs and can be damaged - at least at a liquid collection of arhropods.

Joachim

---- On 16 Mar 2016 at 7:04, Bodil Kajrup wrote:

> One more thing: vials can be put upside down to reduce risk of desiccation, should the gasket fail.
>
> Bodil
> Fish collection, Stockholm

--
Joachim Haendel
Centre of Natural History Collections
of the Martin-Luther-University
- Entomological Collection  -

Domplatz 4
D-06099 Halle (Saale)
Germany

Phone:  +49 345 - 55 26 447
Fax: +49 345 - 55 27 152
Email: joachim.haendel at zns.uni-halle.de

_______________________________________________
Nhcoll-l mailing list
Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l

_______________________________________________
NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to society. See https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.spnhc.org&d=AwIFAg&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=Bll6S23OIAMJ_EhpqsR6GI6XelpWWsckNrpUAI6Woz8&s=V7SzGshwz44cF7iS_aUtSC0Vhyqr_kdSxcOHcVQXeRM&e=  for membership information.
Advertising on NH-COLL-L is inappropriate.

The information contained in this message and/or attachments is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. Any review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon, this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you received this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from any system and destroy any copies. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender.
_______________________________________________
Nhcoll-l mailing list
Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l

_______________________________________________
NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to society. See https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.spnhc.org&d=AwIFAg&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=7mUji05mqNYsJL-FCyoYS4dV5mXSAuIgtzuweef8s-8&s=UYL1FKu71iCcM0Y3L4Gb4vzpb1U0QfvG5vXh0FzYoOI&e=  for membership information.
Advertising on NH-COLL-L is inappropriate.
_______________________________________________
Nhcoll-l mailing list
Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l

_______________________________________________
NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of
Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose
mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of
natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to
society. See https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.spnhc.org&d=AwIF-g&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=sqdb4NidtOfNBBX4YHF0BX4DGnIrbKQS7An3swviMEg&s=czuEoz6Ss_sT9LiC6C73HckHgysVImT9z2Ey665P9kE&e=  for membership information.
Advertising on NH-COLL-L is inappropriate.
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Reminder schedule.docx
Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document
Size: 19843 bytes
Desc: Reminder schedule.docx
Url : http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20160318/3ecf788e/attachment.bin 