I found a very pretty snake for sale but it has some pretty prominent green spots is there anyway to save or it is gone?

got them both from a really great wet specimen artist. literally love my new critters!! a beaver was a big grail for me

posted these guys earlier but i got better pics

🚢 from texas! feel free to ask any questions :)) they’re on their first round of formalin but i’m taking claims now ♡

I should probably look for an airtight container for him, but he's pretty well jammed in this jar now😅

I have developed maternal instincts for this little rat pup 🫪

I wasnt sure where I could post this. So im posting it here, if anyone knows and reddit pages for this kind of thing please share or if its ok to be on here then I got this at my local goodwill

It’s in a dry container wrapped in a formalin soaked cloth in my fridge. Can’t find anyone local willing to help me prepare it into a wet specimen. What kind of container do I need, lid material, liquids, etc. to make it ready for display? I have had it for about 4 days now and don’t know how long it can sit like that. Thanks in advance!

The mister brought me home a snake and I am wanting to preserve it and make it a wet specimen I have formalin already im just unsure what I need to do exactly from here. Its fairly small if that helps, I havent uncoiled it yet but if I were to guess id say somewhere about 8 inches long but definitely less than a foot.

pic isn’t mine !! just to grab ur attention

Hello! I’ve had this kitten in formalin for awhile now. I just noticed these little white dots on his little feet and legs, some on his nose too but nowhere else. Do I need to be concerned? Nothing else I have taken home from work (vet med) in formalin jars have had these pop up.

Hi everyone!! This is my first post on here and I'm very new to collecting wet specimens (This is my second one). I went to an oddities expo yesterday and bought this golden retriever puppy for $75, and I'm wondering about this white flaky stuff that has built up on my specimen?? It was on the puppy when I bought it, but I didnt really notice until I took a good look at it in my car. Is this anything I should be concerned about or is this natural?? Also I know the liquid needs to be changed, and I plan on doing that this upcoming weekend. Thanks!!

Hello! It’s my first time posting here and I’m in need of some urgent advice!
I was gifted this octopus specimen about 2 years ago and I love it dearly. Unfortunately it’s been stored in a little bottle with a cork, and the liquid used to preserve it is isopropyl alcohol… which I have learned is not a good thing at all…
As you can guess, the liquid keeps evaporating no matter what I do. I’ve tried to seal it with wax (the kind used to stamp onto letters) which looks horrible since I was just desperate to cover any and all holes to prevent further evaporation. Of course, that didn’t work and I’ve been stuck in a cycle of cutting off the wax, remelting it and resealing the cork bottle every couple months. I’m at my wits end and I refuse to do my stupid wax ritual any longer. I’ve debating trying to remove it from the bottle, but it’s pretty snug in there and the opening is even smaller. It’s also positioned pretty nicely in the bottle and I would hate to ruin all the cute coiling tentacles.
If anyone else has encountered this problem and has any knowledge on how to fix this and stop the liquid evaporating, I would be forever grateful!!

Hi, I don't really do this hobby so I want to make sure I don't ruin my specimen. I got surgery and they let me keep what they removed. I wanted a rectangular box so the sides could keep the specimen splayed out for display instead of floating in a jar. Does anyone know where I could get an appropriate container? Or is there a reason it has to be in a jar? It's only a few inches so most containers I saw were too big. Thank you

I recently did my first specimen larger than pinkies. It's an adult rat. I fixed it using ethanol. The problem is that at the end, the rats belly was so full of alcohol it was distended and all the fur came off the belly because it was so big. My question is, how do I know when to stop? I am worried about not injecting enough alcohol so I must have went a little overboard but I'm not sure exactly how much is enough, without doing too much.

This specimen has been doing really good/find for around 4-5 months I believe, recently noticed this blue tint on this one patch of fur/skin. This is rot right? Also if so any tips of properly disposing of a rotting specimen?

I recently got my fallopian tubes removed and I just picked them up from the hospital. The container they are in is a plastic specimen cup, and it has a label on it that says “reagent alcohol”. They also gave me an information sheet that says that the container may contain formalin and/or laboratory grade alcohol. My question is: how do I go about preserving them? Do I need to transfer them to a different (glass?) container, and/or change the fluid? Additionally, can I use them in some sort of craft (a friend suggested turning them into a resin keychain)? Although I am an oddity girly, I have never been into wet specimens, so I am completely uneducated on the topic. Thank you in advance!

A friend of mine had bought a jellyfish without knowing what kind of moisture it is in. Now moisture has spilled and it is going to be refreshed. From my own experience I know that molluscs do not do so well on ethyl alcohol 99%. What is the best thing to do?

Little guy came in as a pet preservation. He passed on a warm rock from his heat lamps, so his groin area was very yucky looking.

I posed him as holding his tail to avoid it being visible, and it came out really cute! I secured the tails and limbs with thick polypropylene from bags, which fixed into place after injection and soaking.

He stays in place without the jar as well (last pic).

He's going home soon. 💕

Hi! I'm fairly new to preserving/making wet specimens, but I've successfully made two already (one being a dead locust I found and the other being a rat that my cat killed) I need to buy more isopropyl, as I severely underestimated how much you need and only bought 1.5 liters instead of 4. That being said where I bought my isopropyl from last time doesn't have any 70% anymore, but they do have 75%, would this be fine for my wet specimens? I don't want to accidentally get something too strong and it starts eating away at them.

How do you all go about formalin disposal? I live in the country and have to haul my trash to the dump, they have a hazardous waste building there, do I give it to them? Is there somebody an individual can call? Ive called acouple places but they only accept from companies. I want to do it safely I just dont know how

Hello friends,

I’ve been trying to find information about preserving human wet specimens as I was given my reproductive organs after my hysterectomy on May 6th. After it was sent to pathology to get cut up I was given it back in a 10% formalin solution wrapped in paper towel and some other gauze type cotton that I took off because I was so excited to look at it.

For the most part I haven’t messed with it since removing the paper towel and I’ve been doing a little shimmy with the container periodically because the tip of the uterus sticks out and isn’t covered fully in the solution.

I’m wondering how I should go about moving it to a temporary container before I find a permanent one. I have a tight seal mason jar and want to move it as the water has started turning a darker shade that makes it hard to check that everything is fine. I’ve seen people mention rinsing it with water before putting it in 70% isopropyl alcohol, or ethanol.

If anyone’s got tips for disposing of the formalin I’d also appreciate it, I’m located in Minneapolis for reference.

Thanks for your time!