Cleared and Stained Fish

[Malavok]

When I lived in Austin, I worked at UT's natural history collections in the ichthyology department. They recruited me to photograph our cleared and stained fish collection. Here are some of my favorite shots from that.

These are all for the Fishes of Texas Project database, which is hosted by UT's Biodiversity Collections:
www.fishesoftexas.org

I used an old, rickety light box and a D5200 with a Tamron 90mm. It was often a frustrating process because the specimens are stored in glycerin, which would inevitably get all over my hands, clothes, and the light box.

Reddish colors are bone and bluish colors are cartilage (not always 100% perfect but most of these are pretty high quality stains).

Species names are included for most of them, if you're curious!

Antennarius radiosus:

Peprilus burti:

Etheostoma lepidum:

Strongylura marina:

Narcine bancroftii:

Centrarchus macropterus:

Oligoplites saurus:

Don't know the species for this one:

Bagre marinus:

Lepomis megalotis:

 

[tirediron]

That is very cool!

 

[waday]

So neat!!

 

[jcdeboever]

There is something you don't see every day. Very interesting and colorful. Thanks for sharing them.

 

[weepete]

I love these!

 

[Derrel]

Very fun to look at! Thank you for posting these.

 

[Malavok]

Thanks everyone, they are really neat specimens!

 

[Raj_55555]

That's something you don't get to see everyday.. Thanks for posting!

 

[Achaicus]

When I lived in Austin, I worked at UT's natural history collections in the ichthyology department. They recruited me to photograph our cleared and stained fish collection. Here are some of my favorite shots from that.

These are all for the Fishes of Texas Project database, which is hosted by UT's Biodiversity Collections:
www.fishesoftexas.org

I used an old, rickety light box and a D5200 with a Tamron 90mm. It was often a frustrating process because the specimens are stored in glycerin, which would inevitably get all over my hands, clothes, and the light box.

Reddish colors are bone and bluish colors are cartilage (not always 100% perfect but most of these are pretty high quality stains).

Species names are included for most of them, if you're curious!

Antennarius radiosus: (Single spot Frogfish) Atlantic

Peprilus burti: (Gulf butterfish) Saltwater Gulf of Mexico

Etheostoma lepidum: Greenthroat Darter, freshwater Texas

Strongylura marina: (Atlantic needlefish)

Narcine bancroftii: Caribbean or lesser electric ray

Centrarchus macropterus: (Flier-type of Sunfish, Freshwater, Southeastern US

Oligoplites saurus: Leather Jack, Saltwater, Atlantic Gulf of Mexico Pacific Indian Oceans

Don't know the species for this one:

Bagre marinus: Gafftopsail Catfish, Saltwater Atlantic and connected American continental waters. Venomous spines

Lepomis megalotis: Longear Sunfish

Added some common name and locality information, because I was curious and wanted to share.

 

[nycphotography]

Thanks for posting! I went to the website, and would never in a million years, have figured out how to find these, nor even known that they existed

 

[FITBMX]

This is super cool! The fish and your photos!

Thanks for posting them.