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CHAPTER VI 
COLLECTING AND PRESERVING OF FISHES 
D. E. McAllister 
“In collecting fishes three things are vitally necessary — a keen eye, 
some skill in adapting means to ends, and some willingness to take 
pains in the preservation of material. ...” David Starr Jordan 
Guide to the Study of Fishes 
SUMMARY 
1. Drop live into 10% formalin (1 part concentrated formalin and 9 parts water) and slit 
right side body cavity of specimens over 6 inches long. 
2. Do not crowd or bend. A container should be no more than half full of fish and filled 
to the top with preservative. 
3. Include label in each bottle of fishes bearing at least: date, locality (body of water, 
distance from nearest town, county, province), and collector’s name; label to be of 
water-resistant paper written in India ink or pencil. 
COLLECTING 
Where to Collect 
Few places, if any, in the world have been completely collected. Faunas 
change with climate. As ichthyology reaches higher levels, more refined 
information is required. There is little danger in overcollecting, particularly 
when collecting is selective. On the other hand there are many poorly 
collected habitats and regions which would repay better collecting effort. 
Examples of this are the larger rivers, the deeper waters of lakes and seas, 
the northern waters of Canada, and so on. Museum curators can inform 
one of geographic areas that need attention. 
In collecting it is desirable to cover as many types of habitat as possible. 
Each habitat has its own type' of fish life. In a stream, for example, tiny 
headwaters, broad lower reaches, rapids, pools, backwaters, oxbows, over- 
flow pools, and weed, rock, gravel, sand, and mud sections should all be 
collected. Springs (hot and cold), caves, and wells deserve attention. Marine 
habitats worthy of examination include the upper and lower tide pools ; rocky, 
gravel, sand, and mud shores and bottoms, exposed and protected shores, 
regions of high and low salinity, coral reefs, fishing banks and guyots, surf 
zones; amongst eelgrass, mangroves, rockweed, kelp, and pilings; surface, 
mid-depths, and bottoms in shallow and deep waters. Collections from 
different habitats should be kept separately, and notes should be made of 
particular niches of each habitat from which fishes came. 
Night collecting is well worthwhile as many species remain hidden during 
the day or remain in deeper waters. There are few night and few winter 
collections of fishes. A series of collections taken at different times of the 
year at one station enables studies to be made of movement, growth, and 
maturation. 
