[Nhcoll-l] Separating different species in drums

[Dirk Neumann]

Hi Tonya,

I think it depends a bit on the size of the drums and how delicate and bulky the specimens are. Also, some meshes can be rather sturdy and rigid, while others might get entangled or could abrade specimens. When bagging them up, Zip-lockes should be punched allow some exchange with the surrounding fluid, otherwise specimens are trapped in their "own soup" (which usually is considerably less total fluid compared to body volume) with lipids and oils potentially causing issues which are more difficult to monitor in drums.

Personally, if specimens are tagged, I would prefer to place them carefully into the drums without further separation and would try to use as small drums as possible for this mixed storage to avoid compression of specimens at the sitting at the bottom. If you want to stack them inside the drums (and depending on the size of the specimens), it might be worth checking deep stainless steel strainers for industrial kitchens. They could be padded at the bottom and would provide a stable cage preventing damage when moving specimens in and out.

Hope this is useful
Cheers,
Dirk


Am 13.04.2023 um 03:19 schrieb Haff, Tonya (NCMI, Crace):
Hello all,

I think this has been discussed before, but I am wondering what kinds of solutions people have when several species need to be placed into the same spirit receptacle. In our case, I am talking about mid-sized terrestrial vertebrates….we have a drum shortage because of a factory fire and we’re a bit desperate. The specimens all have registration tags attached to them, so it’s not a matter of not getting the specimens mixed up permanently, it’s simply an issue of ease of finding the species and the specimen in a mixed drum. One solution I think I have heard people talking about is placing specimens into mesh fabric bags to keep them separate…the kind that holds delicates like bras for the wash springs to mind, but I am not sure about their archival nature, and I don’t want to create a future problem.  I guess I could use zip loc bags with holes in them for fluid flow, but again I am not sure that’s a great long-term solution. I suppose I could even sew some archival fabric bags with a sinch top, but if there is a ready-made solution I would prefer that. I also wonder whether there is an easy way to label or find the separate bags – I kind of imagine a fishing float with registration numbers engraved in it or something like that….but again that’s probably not archival in ethanol. Anyway, any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated!

Cheers,

Tonya

-------------------------------------------------
Dr. Tonya M. Haff
Collection Manager
Australian National Wildlife Collection
CSIRO
+61(0)419569109
https://www.csiro.au/en/about/facilities-collections/collections/anwc




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Dirk Neumann
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Stiftung Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversitätswandels
Postanschrift: Adenauerallee 127, 53113 Bonn, Germany

Stiftung des öffentlichen Rechts;
Generaldirektion: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof (Generaldirektor), Adrian Grüter (Kaufm. Geschäftsführer)
Sitz der Stiftung: Adenauerallee 160 in Bonn
Vorsitzender des Stiftungsrates: Dr. Michael Wappelhorst
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