I'm admittedly a bit weird and one thing that proves it is that I have a box in my freezer with all my old fish in it, which have either died of old age, jumping out of the tank, or by disease. I rarely have my fish die, but when I do I immediately put them in the freezer where they eventually become bone dry and light as a feather. They're still beautiful! I wonder if anyone else does this, and I wonder if I could preserve them somehow, varnish them, and mount them? They all still have their bright colors and since all the water is now evaporated from their frozen bodies I don't see why I couldn't now have them stay that way as long as I varnish and seal their bodies so bugs can't get into them. Anybody else preserve their fish before?
ok thats definately different - -but i wouldn't say wierd, lol - - -just make sure the lil lady doesn't make some really pretty stir fry some night {sorry that was wrong}
freezing anything preserves it, thats why we do it....but i wouldn't think all the moisture would be gone out of the lil beauties - -i hate to say it but a dehydrator would do the trick but leave you with pretty raisins ... might try contacting a taxidermist, or freeze a feeder and see if it works before trying one of the nicer ones - - i do like the idea of "mounting" them - -im pictureing them "floating" on a piece of fiber optic wire from a pedistal of some sort - - -let us know what happens, snowboss
I think the chemistry term is sublimation, where water goes from a solid directly to a gas. I've had the fish for years and they're pretty dry. I mean they are light as paper. They dried so slowely that though they're a little bit raisin like, but not much. At this point I don't think they can lose any more moisture. Maybe I'll put them in a jar with some dehydrating substance and get the last wee bit of water, and then varnish. Then I can make a mobile, or put them on mounts with wire like you said.
you should fight the lady that has a million cats in her house, then she stuffs them when they die... do you throw them at people when they walk away from your pad...??
No, but it's amazing what they look like, so very realistic. I had 2 needle nosed gars that died a week from each other from some bacterial infection, and when I put them together in the freezer they looked as if they were together in an embrace of some sort. Unfortunately one fell out of the freezer and I lost it somewhere. Maybe the cat ate it. Maybe when my GF comes over I'll take pics and show you guys.
That reminds me of my sister. I once opened up her freezer and found her dead kittens frozen in ziploc bags. I asked her what is up with that and she said she didn't have the time to bury them so she stuck them in the freezer until a later time. Talk about gross. It would be cool if you glassed your fish somehow and framed them or something.
Not yet! I'm not into rotten fish. Like I said I'm going to put them into a dehydrating medium to get all the very last water out and then I'll coat them in something.
The eyes look pretty cool. The eye is caved in, but the inner part is still sticking out. When I get a camera again I'll take a picture of a few of them.
