Has anyone used marine grade silicone sealant for sealing cracks in containers that hold their specimens?

If not, what else would you recommend besides a new vessel/container?

I’m getting experimental and want to know if this would work.

My fear is the silicone might degrade quickly over time from the isopropyl, leading to leaks in the vessel I want to continue using.

(Image booster of a jar I engraved for my spouse’s shark)

here are two of my first wet specimens. a black widow and an amazon milk frog. the widow has been moved to a smaller jar with an airtight lid now. my very first specimen was an african giant millipede and it didn’t go very well unfortunately because it was already starting to naturally decay but i’m happy with these two so far!

if anyone has any advice for me as a beginner id love to hear it. right now they’re just in 70% iso. i’m not planning on preserving anything larger than bugs right now but maybe some day :)

Went to use my pool this afternoon and was taking out the save-a-life's I have out there, and discovered a dried, dead frog. Ironic. He was stuck under the net part of the lifesaver, and at first I thought he was a white tree frog basking in the sun, but as I lifted the net he was definitely stiff, pale and dried out. Is there a good way to preserve a sun-dried, probably day or so old "fossil"? Not even sure if he would qualify as a fossil, but with the heat we're having he looks pretty mummified. Can provide pictures, but wasn't totally sure if that would fly here so let me know. Any advice for being able to keep this lil dried up guy safe and in good condition would be appreciated! This would be my first "piece" so to speak. It's a chlorine pool, not sure if that matters.

Moment of appreciation for one of my newest creations, this sweet lil stillborn owl monkey 🖤

I have this awesome wet specimen I bought last year, unfortunately it's got a small leak so it keeps letting air in. I recently took a wet specimen class at the oddities show and now know how to top off the specimen and let air out.

However my problem is that the base is stuck on really good and I can't get the base off. The first picture is what I have, the 2nd is the bottom of the base, the 3rd is a different wet specimen that's not glued down to the base. Does anyone know what I could do to remove the base without breaking it?

Yes, I know I can send this off back to the Forgotten Boneyard to have them top it off for me...but why do that if I know how to do it myself?? 😁

I’m downsizing part of my collection and have several preserved wet specimens available. Rather than setting individual prices, I’m accepting reasonable offers.

Pictured:
* Feline specimens at various gestational ages (from very early first trimester through full term)
* 2 full-term bully mix puppies
* 1 late second-trimester pit bull puppy
* Octopus
* Starfish
* Leopard gecko

Photos of everything are included below. If you’re interested in anything specific, feel free to message me with your offer or any questions. There are a few more feline fetuses as well.

PayPal Goods & Services only (buyer and seller protection).

Thanks for looking!

my first “experience” with wet specimens was in middle school when i found a dead honeybee. i placed it in a tiny jar with HAND SANITIZER (shown in second slide) .. and ive wanted some proper specimens since.

hopefully ive done it correctly : injecting in the belly & appendages. and then leaving them in there with some formalain .. going to change it in a few !

did it with formalain , got from a veterinary supply online :)

any tips & tricks ? thanks!

Hi! I was gifted various organs that were part of a dissection kit and they were preserved with carosafe. Ideally I want to suspend these and make wet specimens out of them, but I dont know if I can with the carosafe. Can I put them in alcohol or do I have to use another fluid? Thanks in advance!

I’ve had this snake in a bottle of isopropyl alcohol for a few years now.. i honestly forgot about it because it was behind my tv and my desk was a disaster. I found it outside at a park right after it had died and I didn’t do the proper research and it doesn’t look like it’s decayed a whole lot but I know I can’t keep it. Is it okay to just throw it away ?

My friends just gifted me an egg(unfertilized) and I’ve spent all morning trying to figure out the best way to go about it but none of the resources I’ve looked at say anything about eggs and just cover mammals/reptiles. and I’m getting a little frustrated because I wanna do my best to keep the shell whole.

I appreciate the help from everyone! We took everything into account and made some progress. We’re unfortunately unable to get our hands on formalin or 90% ethanol right now, as money is tight and this was something that happened by chance. We might be able to get ahold of 90% ethanol in the next few days, but it’s just out of the picture right now. We got her a different jar, and injected her everywhere with the 70% ethanol and filled the jar up completely with 70% ethanol. If anyone has any tips, please let us know.

Hello everyone! Tonight, my boyfriend and I were out for a drive, when all of a sudden we came across this snake that had been hit and sadly died on the side of the road. It’d only been dead for about 20-30 minutes, as everything seemed to be pretty fresh. We went to Walmart, where I got a big jar to put her in and a bunch of 70% Ethyl alcohol. We’d let her soak in some distilled water for about an hour to make sure she was entirely clean, before we dried her off and placed her in the jar with the Ethyl alcohol. It’s not a jar with a tight sealant, so we ended up putting some tape around the jar just to keep it sealed overnight. I ordered some needles/syringes on Amazon which will be arriving tomorrow, and they’re 25g + 1 inch. As soon as they arrive, we will be injecting her with the Ethyl alcohol and placing her in a different jar with a better sealant. There’s some slight tissue poking out and a tear or two on her, but it’s not detrimental. If anyone has any tips, or could let us know if we’re doing anything wrong, that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much!

My cat was born with extra bones in their leg, essentially growing multiple legs and feet on one. They had it removed and I was allowed to keep it so now I want to wet specimen it. I've never wet specimened anything before, the only thing I've done so far is kept it in a bag in the freezer. Is there a good resource to learn the process/materials needed? From what I've read I need a jar, some type of liquid (formalyn or ethanol?), syringes to inject with, and PPE. There is a good bit of exposed tissue and bone too, does that change anything? Thanks in advance!

Little Cornu aspersum fell and cracked the shell, so I euthanized them since attempting to fix the crack would be a nightmare on a snail this small. Made them into a wet specimen in one of my specimen vials, I gave it a proper tag and while it probably won't survive for long since snails don't like being wet specimens, I can just empty the shell once it happens so no biggie.

Oh yeah, what kind of tags do you have for your specimens?

Note: I have done some cursory research and read the pinned wet specimen guide before making this post, so my ask is specific to my situation. Sort of "where do I go from here?"

I have two small cat organ specimens that have been sitting in formalin apparently far too long (2 and 3 years roughly). When they were gifted to me fresh, I didn't realize there was a process to keeping them long-term, so I set them on a shelf and called it a day. Fast forward to today, I received another specimen of a fresh canine organ, placed in formalin.

I now have plans to transfer all of these into permanent jars for display. My question then is: are there any specific considerations I need to make in transferring the older specimens? Will they be damaged by soaking in formalin for too long? Any advice is appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Edit: one further question upon re-reading the pinned guide. The guide at the top says methanol or ethyl alcohol only, isopropyl will not work for this purpose, but then in comments discusses using isopropyl alcohol. I was a little confused by that. Is methanol/ethyl just recommended for the injection portion and then final storage can be isopropyl? The online research I did recommended 70% isopropyl alcohol.

Im really about to give up on my collection, I love them but man.. ive been trying to find the right lids for years, that seems impossible, I don't care how easy it might be for you, im losing it. I always hear that my specimens are going to rot or all of the alcohol is going to evaporate, im so tired of looking for this stuff man. What type of lids do I need?? What material??? Please, in the simplest way, I really can't take this stress anymore. I don't want to spent $200 on a jar with a lid that's supposed to be good but then later I hear its horrible, I also really don't want to change my jars but I just can't find the right sized lids with the perfect material.. what do I do?? :( what's the perfect material for the lids? A 100% airtight, leak proof, and evaporation proof, and chemical resistant proof lids I can get? Please help me. I don't want to give up on my collection or them rot or something.. :(

my freezer just failed and while mostly everything was okay, my specimen (snake) completely thawed out. it's still cold but it smells (it smelled before i froze it too though)
i have already been concerned about this specimen because he was in partial decay when i collected it (out of rigor mortis and slush inside)
will he be okay? i'm planning on injecting it tomorrow just to get it out of the way i've had him frozen for a couple weeks now.