Has anyone ever preserved thir octopus in alcohol or formaldehyde? I know in my biology classroom there are 100's of jars of everything you could imagine, just wondering if anyone has their octopus in a jar on their mantle piece (no pun intended).

Jon

Steve O posted some instructions for preserving squids: see
http://www.tonmo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3938&page=2&pp=20

One of my first octopuses is sitting in a jar in formaldehyde from about 20 years ago. :shock: Preserved him well.

How big an octi????

I'd go for 95% ETOH (ethanol) or (if you can afford it!) Isopropylalcohol rather than formalin/formaldehyde. The later is extremely toxic. At the lab here we're in the process of changing all the formalin solutions to alcohol. Certainly for a large specimen you may need to fix it in formalin first (but then you need to get rid of the formalin.....does your school employ a chemical removal company?) and THEN store it in alcohol.

For a small octi (already dead :smile: ) we just place them in alcohol straight away, about 2x volume of alcohol to volume of animal. It seems to work just fine!


Cheers

Jean

I was really jsut curious, but I would like to try it once mine is gone (maby 8 months). Its small right now obviously, but it will most likely be average bimac adult size when I try and preserve it. Thanks for the help, Ill take to my biology department as soon as I can to see if they have recommendations or help for me.

Jon

I wouldnt use formaldahide since it is a carcinagin a cancer causing agent, and it is highly toxic. So your best bet is the alchohol.

Did Steve not post somewhere a while back about how to preserve cephalopods? Try a search through the science section

I preserved my cuttlefish in rubbing alchohol i made a little thing for him and it looks really cool.