Fish skeleton removal

I

Industrial

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 22, 2010
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Buffalo, NY
So I made a stupid mistake when setting up my brackish tank and quite a few of the fish in it died. The fish are too big to feed to my vampire tetra and I am thinking about trying to remove their skeletons and trying to recontruct the fish. I got the idea from a thread I saw on here a few weeks ago.

Anyways I read that drano and water boiled on the stove is the fastest way, but I do not have any drano and I am kind of low on cash right now and I am wondering if bleach could do this. I have a large jug of bleach I bought a while ago and I am thinking of putting some in an old glass fish bowl I don't use and putting the dead fish in it. Would a small amount of pure bleach (normal bleach, but I won't add any water) be too strong and destroy the skeleton? Should I add some boiling water too?

A while ago I tried to do this to a fish that died and I would boil water, put it in the bowl and put something ontop of the bowl and then after 5 or 10 minutes stir it around which seemed to work, but after an hour it wasn't working so I left it there for 2-3 days and when I came back maybe 1/3rd of the fish and skeleton were still there. I am thinking the fish may have been too small though.
 
necrocanis

necrocanis

Catfish God
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Bleach will deteriorate the bone over time. Best to stay away from that. Don't boil fish bones as they will become flimsy and curl. I've been collecting and cleaning skulls, and skeletons for nearly 13 years and trust me when I say that fish are the most complex and challenging creatures to preserve the bones. If you have some screen that you can make a box out of that is small enough that the bones won't fall through you can do that ant method. If it is left in the open outside though it is a safe bet that something will make off with it. So what's the best method? I use tweezers, exacto knives, and a lot of patience. I take lots of pics with my digicam along the way so that I know where all the bones go when it's finished. I dissassemble them by hand, and once it's down to just bone or however I want it I move on to degreasing. You can use acetone, ammonia, or get some super strength degreasing dawn and mix it with water before adding bones. This process will take several weeks to several months. Replacing the water several times with warm water helps. You'll need to rinse the bones very will after degreasing, and put them straight into peroxide for whitening. This will take two weeks to 2 months depending on how white you'd like your bones. Next let them dry, arrange them how you please, and mount them for the world to see.
 
necrocanis

necrocanis

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Museums use beetle larvae called dermestids. I had a colony for about a year some of the coolest critters I've ever owned. They will take care of a skeleton really well for you.
 
necrocanis

necrocanis

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yes regular hydrogen peroxide from your local pharmacy or walmart or grocery lol. If you used full strength peroxide there'd be no bone left. It's best to start with larger fish. I have fish skeletons down to about 2" long right now, but haven't went smaller for a whole skeleton. Fins are also a big challenge. The bones are very flexible and extremely thin. They are made up of hundreds of smaller bones that have joints. If you go to far in the cleaning process you will remove ligaments between these small bones and they will fall apart. Then it will be impossible to preserve them.

Here's a pic of a tiger shovelnose catfish after being cleaned by my dermestid beetles.

IMG_6874.jpg
 
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