Preserving fish teeth and skulls - #9

Having dried the bones in the sun for another 2-3 days, it's time for the final cleaning of the bones after Hydrogen Peroxide solution process.

There might still be some fatty deposits(white stuff) stuck to the nooks and crannies of the bones so it's best to try to remove as much of these stuff as you can. This will prevent smell or insect 'visiting' your bone collection.

Then place all the bones in pairs to ensure you have all your pieces. Sometimes, some larger pieces may break off to become smaller pieces during the acetone and H2O2 process.

I start off by gluing back some of the teeth that have fallen out.

Luckily for these set of teeth, most of the bigger teeth stayed on but its the little teeth that are most difficult! You just have to put them back where you think they fit!

I'm laying the bones out to see what fits where. Luckily I took some photos as I was removing the flesh from the bones. Hopefully with those pictures, I can slowly reconstruct the skull.

Check back to see the progress!

Preserving fish teeth and skulls - #8

Finally satisfied with the whiteness of the bones.

Removed from Hydrogen Peroxide solution and dried under the hot sun. (Scorching hot these few days!!)


The pictures below will give a reference of the colouring of the bones during the whole bone cleaning process.

Left bones - out from water maceration after about 14-21 days

Middle bones - out from acetone solution after about 7-10 days

Right bones - out from 50% Hydrogen Peroxide and 50% water solution after about 7-10 days

Preserving fish teeth and skulls - #7

An update on the whitening process of the bones.

Day 1 of adding Hydrogen Peroxide

Day 4 of Hydrogen Peroxide

You can see that the bones have whiten up and there are bubbles on the bones! Good progress!

Preserving fish teeth and skulls - #6

Finally it's time to whiten the bones.

Gathered up all the bones and back into a glass bottle. Poured Hydrogen Peroxide and water into the bottle. The ratio should be 50:50 and must cover all the bones.

Going to leave the bottle for about a week or so OR up to the level of whiteness to your liking.

The lid of the bottle must be left loose as the Hydrogen Peroxide needs oxygen to react to make the bones white. Check the bottle often to see its progress. It's normal to see bubbles forming on the bones.

Preserving fish teeth and skulls - #5

It's been about a week since I soaked the bones in acetone. The acetone is supposed to remove the grease from the bones. The bones turned yellow, which is normal. 

I then placed all the bones in a shallow painting tray and filled it with water.

I'm going to do the final removal of any remaining flesh on the bones, picking them out from all the nooks and crannies of the bones. The remaining flesh is quite easily noticeable as they appear as white specks.

Then a final rinse in water again. If you have those jet-spray type of kitchen tap, that'll help in getting the flesh out too!

Once you're satisfied with the 'cleanliness' of the bones, can put them out to dry again. I'm going to dry them for 1 day.

Next step is the whitening process. Check back frequently to see the progress!

Southern Island fishing with Uncle Lim #5 - Slow trip again (Just me!)

Been a while since I've fished on Uncle Lim's boat. Today the target fish are Blackspot Tuskfish aka Eng Ko and Diamond Trevally aka Chermin.

Set off early and first spot was for Sagai aka Trevally. As it turns out, it was Bumpnosed Trevally. Tried using micro jigs but they weren't interested. Switched to sabikis and managed to catch 4-5 palm-sized pieces. Quite fun on light tackle.

After that quick workout, we headed to Eng Ko spots. Moved between a few spots and the other anglers were catching quite a few table-sized specimens. In amongst the catches were also some pretty decent sized Spanish Flags aka Tee Boon.

I caught my first fish of the trip but it wasn't an Eng Ko. This is an Anchor Tuskfish. Small fella so I released it.

Current wasn't moving much today, was using only small bean sinkers on my running sinker rig. But somehow, some fish managed to perfectly remove the prawn meat and leave me the shell!

Other anglers were pulling up some nice Chermin and more Eng Ko's with some Tee Boon thrown in. And I'm still stuck on 1 fish......

After lunch we moved to a deeper water spot and I started to fish. Finally a fish took my bait and was taking out some line on my Shimano Curado baitcaster. Uncle Lim was afraid that it might be a big Eng Ko and bury me in some rocks so he told me to keep pumping it off the bottom. In between the short bursts of line stripping, I tried to pump up and reel back till I finally felt the fish under control. Reeled it up and it turned out to be a big Painted Sweetlips aka Kaci. This fella gave quite a good fight!

A short while later, I had another take but this time I could tell it was a smaller fish. Turned out to be a juvenile Red Spot Emperor aka Leng Chiam.

During the last few minutes of fishing, one angler hooked up and when he brought the fish up, there were whoops of joy as it was a nice sized Coral Trout aka Ang Gao! Lucky angler!

We finished up our live prawns and headed back to the jetty.

Pretty decent catch but I was the one who didn't catch much fish.

Gear used

Rod - Berkley Nomadic Travel Trigger PE0.8-1.2

Reel - Shimano Curado 201HG

Line - generic 20lb braid

Bait - Live prawn

Rig - Running sinker with size 1 hook

Fish ID - Anchor Tuskfish (Choerodon anchorago)

             -  Kaci aka Painted Sweetlips (Diagramma pictus)

             - Red Spot Emperor aka Leng Chiam (Lethrinus lentjan)

Preserving fish teeth and skulls - #4

Bones and teeth have been left to dry for more than 2 days actually. Been busy with work.

So here they are after drying out in the sun.

Looks like it's going to be a tough 3D jigsaw puzzle for me to put them back together!

Made sure that most pieces are in pairs and to find any loose teeth that might have fallen off.

Now I placed them back into a strainer bag and into a bottle. Used 2 bottles as there were many bones/parts for this fish head.

Poured acetone till it covers all the bones.

++++++++++++++  WARNING!!  +++++++++++

ACETONE IS A FLAMMABLE LIQUID. KEEP AWAY FROM FLAMES AND DO NOT BREATHE IN THE FUMES. WEAR A MASK!

++++++++++++++  WARNING!!  +++++++++++

Closed it up and left in a cool, dry place. Will check on it in a week or so.

Feel free to ask any question in the comments section on bone preservation!