crabs wanted

[LeslieH]

Hi everyone --

Want to get rid of your pesky crabs? Why not donate them to science instead of freezing or flushing them? There are some people here at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County that are doing a genetic research project on crabs. They need freshly preserved specimens in 95% alcohol so you can send them either live or in alcohol. Ethyl alcohol is best, rubbing alcohol from the drugstore is okay, so is white rum or vodka as long as it's 150 proof or higher (and you get to drink the rest, win-win!). Along with the crab we absolutely need to know where it came from: Bali rock, Fiji rock, Florida rock, etc. If we don't have locality we can't identify them; if we can't identify them we can't use them.

To preserve a crab just throw it into a container filled with alcohol. Leave it in overnight to make sure the body tissues are saturated with alcohol. Take it out & wrap it in a paper towel soaked with alcohol. Triple bag it in ziplocks or baggies so the towel doesn't dry out & there's no leakage during shipping (if you can heat seal the plastic that's even better). Place the bag into a crush-proof container. It can be shipped 1st class or overnight. Sorry, we can't pay postage - we might go bankrupt if we got a lot & had to pay for them all! - but it's tax deductible.

Send them to me here at the museum:
Leslie Harris
Collection Manager, Polychaetes
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
900 Exposition Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90007

Many thanks, Leslie

[Travis L. Stevens]

Awesome, Leslie. I hope that you get a lot of responses. Is it possible to keep everyone updated here on Reef Central? I'll be watching this thread very closely. Also, can you help fill in the blanks. This might not only be useful to you and others, but it will be especially useful for me since this is something I've been wondering about for a long time.


Ethyl Alcohol
Effectiveness: A+
Location: ???

Isopropyl Alcohol (Rubbing Alcohol)
Effectiveness: ???
Location: Drug Store

Drinking Alcohol (White Rum or Vodka of 150+ proof)
Effectiveness: ???
Location: Liquor Store

Formaldehyde
Effectiveness: ???
Location: ???

[LeslieH]

thanks, Travis. I hope I get a lot of responses too! What kind of updates would you like? The project is focused on phylogeny & evolutionary relationships. It's going to run for several years so results won't be ready for a while. I'm not a part of it; it just occurred to me after reading yet another post about unwanted crabs that it would be great if the folks here would donate them.

Ethyl Alcohol Alcohol is a sterile preservative. It doesn't fix the tissues like formalin does but it keeps the body from decaying by killing bacteria, fungus, etc., & other agents of decay.
Effectiveness: Ethyl is the best alcohol in terms of keeping the animals in good shape but it's not as good as formalin when used as the initial preservative. Body tissues may become too soft & all color is lost. Some mollusc, crustacea, & echinoderm specialists prefer to put their specimens into alcohol because formalin will decalcify the shells & exoskeletons. On the other hand, specimens for DNA analysis cannot go into formalin & must go into alcohol.
Location: We get ours in 55-gallon drums from chemical supply houses. There are different qualities. We get 98% medicinal grade which requires a special license from the US government. Denatured ethyl alcohol doesn't require a license & is much much cheaper. Some may be available from drug stores.

Isopropyl Alcohol (Rubbing Alcohol)
Effectiveness: As effective as ethyl alcohol for preservation but the animals tend to become too rigid & brittle. Second choice when ethyl isn't available.
Location: Drug Store, supermarkets

Drinking Alcohol (White Rum or Vodka of 150+ proof) When we did a big survey in the British Virgin Islands we found it was way too expensive to get ethyl alcohol. http://www.nhm.org/guana/bvi-invt/home.htm Our solution? Baccardi's 151 white rum which was a few dollars per bottle. 151 proof is the equivalent of 75% alcohol. Each year we would buy 20 cases of rum & it would be completely used up (on animals, not us!) by the time we left one month later. We were assured by geneticists that it could be use for DNA sampling.
Effectiveness: Same as other alcohols. Smells nicer.
Location: Liquor Store, supermarkets

Formaldehyde This is embalming fluid. When diluted it's called formalin. We use at concentrations between 5 & 10%. It stabilizes the proteins in the body so they don't break down & decay.
Effectiveness: The best for most animals. Tissue remains soft & flexible and inner organs are well preserved. Decalcifies shells & exoskeletons in the long run. Normal procedure is to fix the animals in formalin then switch them into 70% ethyl alcohol for long term storage. Not used for specimens that will be analysed for DNA.
Location: Can be bought at some drug stores and chemical supply houses.

[webbstock]

Formaldehyde Not a good idea-carcinogenic

Ethyl alcohol and "drinking" alcohol are the same thing, from an alcohol standpoint. Liquor products just have additional sugars, flavors etc in them. A cheap and relatively easy source for high percentage ethyl alcohol are products like "Everclear" which can be bought a most liquor stores. Buy the 180 proof (90%) alcohol.

Also remember that ethyl and rubbing alcohol (isopropanol) are flammable so no open flames, cigar parties etc.

[Travis L. Stevens]

Wonderful, Leslie!! I'm sure that will help people greatly when sending crabs to you. Hopefully you can keep us updated with cool little tidbits, even if it isn't 100% proven yet. Heck, PM/email me as much as possible. Good luck with it! If I find any crabs, they're sure to come your way.

[kiknchikn]

That sounds like a really cool project. I'd love to hear more about it and receive updates too

I've bookmarked this page so I can refer people to it when they talk about getting rid of crabs.

[LeslieH]

Webbstock's right, formaldehyde is considered carcinogenic but it's still the standard for museum use. It takes a lot of exposure to create major damage & cancer; small doses can have nasty short-term effects. If anyone is considering using it for any reason take precautions. Wear gloves (it stings like hell in an open cut) and use only in a well ventilated area. Avoid breathing it. A few whiffs won't kill you but it will irritate respiratory passages & produce headaches. It smells bad, too. On the other hand, formaldehyde is widely used in manufacturing & all kinds of industry. It used in wood products (plywood, wood paneling), fabrics (sizing), even in the food industry.

Thanks for the tip about Everyclear. Since we buy in bulk I'm not real familar with other sources.

[Travis L. Stevens]

Bump

Leslie, are you still looking for crabs?

[LeslieH]

Always!

[Travis L. Stevens]

Leslie, please feel free to clear up any confusion or vague information. Also, is it a good price for mass preservations?

As an additional tidbit of information I learned recently, Grain Alcohol is the same thing as Ethyl Alcohol. At my local liquor store, I found Grain Alcohol at 190 Proof (95% alcohol) in a 1 gallon jug for $28.97.

[LeslieH]

Well, we order through chemical supply houses. A 4-liter bottle of the quality we use is about $95US. The museum normally buy 55-gallon drums of the stuff so the per gallon price is cheaper but nowhere near as low as grain alcohol from the liquor store.

[Travis L. Stevens]

So would you say that Grain Alcohol is a viable preservation fluid at a good price for home preservationists?

[LeslieH]

Sure sounds good. Next time I'm in the field & run out of preservative I'll be heading to the nearest liquor store for some grain alcohol.

[Travis L. Stevens]

There you have it! The professional worm wrangler from an actual museum will use this when unable to access the main source (IE out, not close to it, etc). If it's good enough for her, it's good enough for me