[Nhcoll-l] preserving leafy sea dragon

[Lennart Lennuk]

Hi!

Just wondering if it is also important to use same salt level when organisms are collected from low salinity (5-7) environment?

Best!
Lennart

From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> On Behalf Of John E Simmons
Sent: Tuesday, September 2, 2025 9:24 PM
To: Catherine Early (she/her) <cearly at smm.org>
Cc: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] preserving leafy sea dragon

I agree with Simon and Dirk. Use 1:9 formaldehyde and the same salt water the animal was living in, and inject as needed to make sure you get good penetration of the fixative. Once it is hardened, it can be transferred to 70% ETOH for long-term storage.

--John

John E. Simmons
Writer and Museum Consultant
Museologica
and
Investigador Asociado, Departamento de Ornitologia
Museo de Historia Natural, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima


On Tue, Sep 2, 2025 at 10:09 AM Catherine Early (she/her) <cearly at smm.org<mailto:cearly at smm.org>> wrote:
Hi all,

I'm passing along a request from advice from a zoo partner: they had a leafy sea dragon pass away and want to fluid-preserve it. They have formalin on hand and can put it into there immediately after necropsy, but is there a better approach? My experience is with fluid-preserving terrestrial animals and I don't have my copy of John Simmons' book at hand today, so I'm feeling out of my depth to help them. Thanks!

Best,
Catherine

[https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/mail-sig/AIorK4wD9JXWFLGfFGcjNPg9ybTqLuzHoh9SsWwN0epasNsoagFJsUsqboDVGj5yunC50y06p5F7S5Y]


Catherine M. Early, PhD

she/her/hers

Barbara Brown Chair of Ornithology

cearly at smm.org<mailto:cearly at smm.org>

https://catherineearly.wixsite.com/home








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