[Nhcoll-l] Mold or fungal growth in herpetology collection

[John Furlone]

Hi Indah,

First off, thank you for bringing this subject up. I too am relatively new to the Ichthyology collection I work at. Recently we had a biologist visit our collection to view some filter feeding specimens, one of which was a juvenile Rhincodon typus. As this is a rare species in our collection, I was concerned to find a similar white growth on the specimen.

Dirk's advice to use a brush and a mild detergent with warm water worked very well (Thanks Dirk!). The white growth was safely removed with a gentle hand. To avoid this recurring, I have made sure to sanitize the container to remove any possible contaminants, and replace the old EtOH with fresh 70% EtOH.

Unfortunately, I did not have the foresight to take a before and after photo.
Hopefully, you find success with Dirk's advice on removing the white growth.

Thanks again, and good luck!

Cheers,
John




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John Furlone
Collections Technician (Fishes)

100 Queen's Park
Toronto, ON M5S 2C6



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Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Mold or fungal growth in herpetology collection

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Hello everyone,

I was wondering if I could get feedback on some scary-looking growths on a few herpetology specimens in our collection (photos attached here). Any thoughts on what these residues are and/or advice on how to treat them would be much appreciated!

Orange-brown bumps. (images 143927 and 143900) There are small, orange-brown, round bumps on one specimen that has had its tail exposed from fluid levels that are too low. I completely replaced the ethanol for this specimen and tried to gently scrape off the growth, but most of it was quite dried on, so I left it soaking in fresh 70% ethanol for the time being. Is this definitely fungal? Should I try to scrape the rest of the growth off the specimen's tail or leave it alone?

White layer of residue. (all other images) On a few salamander specimens, there is this opaque, white layer of residue. This is occurring on salamander specimens that are completely submerged in ethanol. (However, I am not sure what the concentration of this ethanol is or the last time that it was changed out; I worry it might have lost ethanol concentration over time.) Any thoughts on what this might be and how to treat it?

I took over this collection a few months ago, so I am still discovering issues with specimens. I appreciate any suggestions that you folks have to offer on how to help these poor specimens!

Thanks,

Indah



Indah B. Huegele, PhD
Life Sciences Collection Manager | Idaho Museum of Natural History

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