Are you a fisherman? Did you catch an incredibly large or very rare fish? Your actions, as a rule, are as follows - to take a picture with prey, boil an ear or just fry it. And what about the rest? Memories and photos ... And how I want to demonstrate a life-size trophy! How to be? Prey needs to be saved. How to achieve this, we will tell you now.
So let's get started
Taxidermy is a special art. Its essence is how to make a stuffed fish, animal or bird. Her receptions are different - simpler and more complicated - and depend on the category of the exhibit. That is, you must know what kind of fish you want to deal with.
The first of the categories is fish that do not change shape after drying due to a leathery-bony cover. This applies to the Far Eastern sea chanterelles, urchin fish, sea horses, needle fish, tropical bodies, armored pike. It is still good to keep in shape with freshwater perches, Black Sea ruffs and coral groupers.
The second category is “soft-bodied” fish. River inhabitants from the number of catfish, loaches, burbot, line and sea - catfish, moray eels, various dogs. The skin of such fish is very thin, and there is a lot of meat on the body (carcass) and on the head. Or other fish - in which the scaly cover is very weak (we are talking about chubs, ides, roaches). After drying the form, such instances hold poorly.
The most difficult, third category includes sharks, stingrays and sturgeons - due to the many cartilage and adipose tissue.
How to make a stuffed fish with your own hands
Each of the categories has its own taxidermy technique. We now intend to talk about the first two. Stuffed fish, photos of which are given in this article, are made by experienced craftsmen. But there is absolutely nothing to be afraid of a beginner here.
Beginning taxidermists are first of all obliged to master the procedure of getting rid of fish from the skin. You can practice this when cooking fish cakes.
Take an ordinary perch - it has a fairly strong skin:
- We cut it along the belly from the gills to the tail. Use a sharp knife or scissors.
- The skin is turned to the side, the insides are cleaned, the rays of the fins, which continue in the body, are neatly cut.
- Then the meat is alternately on each side separated from the edges of the skin. In this case, care must be taken to preserve the pigment layer - in order to later restore the fish color.
How to make a scarecrow out of a fish head
The muscles of the fish cheeks should be carefully removed from the outside and inside, being careful not to tear the skin. The resulting cavity must be filled with packing. As such, something soft is suitable - soft plasticine or wax.
Eyes are replaced with plastic balls. As an option - eyes from a small old doll. With them, the stuffed heads of fish look alive. But some fish retain their own eyes when dried.
The fish body is tinted with honey watercolor - its thin layer imitates natural shine. To create a “wet” effect, the stuffed fish is coated with a transparent preservative varnish (only not a yellow hue).
Having mastered the procedure for removing fish skin, we proceed directly to the matter of making a stuffed animal. Beginning taxidermists should not choose large specimens, it is difficult to work with them. Take fish no larger than 30 centimeters.
Necessary materials
Here's what you need to stock up for work:
- aluminum wire 2-4 mm thick;
- formalin solution (20-30%);
- foil.
We make a curved wire frame from the wire and bring its ends out. They will come in handy for us to hang fish for drying or fix them on the wall.
The next important action is the preparation of the chemical. The fish must be soaked in a formalin solution, otherwise it will go bad very quickly. In addition, this will help the product maintain its shape.
Pour formalin into a container of such a size that the fish fits freely and does not turn out to be squeezed by the walls.
Fixation
Fixation can be done in different ways. The first way - without first removing the meat, immerse the whole fish in a solution already filled with filler and sewn up. Its shape will be fixed quite reliably, and meat after processing is easier to remove than raw. Do not forget about gloves to protect hand skin from overdrying with formalin.
Take care of the fins that adorn the stuffed fish. Each of the fins should be stretched with one hand, the other piercing its base with a pin along with the skin. All rays should be spread out.
If you decide to fix the gutted fish, you can bend it in a natural way with a piece of wire threaded through the body. The fish have to lie in the solution for at least a week, until all the tissues are completely saturated.
Drying
The future is stuffed with a fish stuffed in a room that is well ventilated - in a garage, a barn, etc. Do not let people in there - so that they do not breathe in harmful formalin vapors.
It is advisable to wrap the fish fins with a thin aluminum foil, otherwise they may break during drying. After all, it takes a month or more to dry the fish for a long time. They cannot be wrapped with paper, because during the drying process, mucus will stand out and glue the paper firmly to the fin. Remove it without spoiling the impression of small shreds will not work.
Further, we will provide some details about stuffing fish and handling formalin.
Stuffing
It can be different, and it is more convenient for craftsmen to include sand (for small fish) and gypsum (larger for specimens). Gypsum evaporates moisture faster and is more suitable for traveling conditions.
Gypsum filler is prepared as follows:
- Gypsum (1 part) is mixed with three parts of shredded wood chips (in dry form).
- Pesticide and insecticide in small quantities can be added.
- Everything is bred to a consistency resembling a thick porridge.
The mixture quickly (until it has hardened) should fill the fish already worn on the frame.
How to work with formalin?
To a formalin solution of 1 liter add a teaspoon of borax. Its task is to neutralize organic acid, which is unfavorable for tissues.
Then we take flesh-colored threads with which we sew the abdomen. In this case, you need to work carefully, holding the seam with your hand, - the skin may begin to tear. When reaching the tail, the thread should be cut off or cut and tied carefully. Finally, you need to remove excess gypsum, for which the fish is washed under a cold stream of water.
We pass to drying. While the gypsum is still raw, hands should smooth out all the bumps.
Cooking a scarecrow on the spot
Suppose you are traveling and you don’t have gypsum with you, and the working conditions are field-based. What can be done here? It is very useful to take a syringe and some formalin from the house so that the trophy is intact upon return. And gypsum will replace a handful of raw sea sand.
After scrubbing fish skin, sprinkle it with formalin from a syringe. You need to try to fix the fins - it’s good if you have pins with you. The carcass is stuffed with wet sand (can be mixed with formalin). The abdomen is sutured, the trophy is tightly packed in a bag of polyethylene.
The fish will be stored in a tightly tied bag for a week or two. Drying is desirable to avoid. Upon returning home, place it in a container with a large amount of formalin, and after a week it is time to hang out the trophy to dry.
The advantage of this method is that the sand will gradually spill out through the openings of the seam or through the mouth. The shape of the fish will still be preserved, but at the same time it will become light and can be hung on a stern thread in any chosen place.
Alternative option
Another way that stuffed fish is made, which allows storing exhibits compactly, is popular in America. The fish stuffed, mounted on a specially designed polished board and covered with glass, is suspended in the intended place.
To store the trophy in this way, you need to get its side slice. The fish that has undergone preliminary processing in formalin is carefully cut into two parts, which are not completely equal to each other. One of the halves - a little more - stays with fins. The flesh with bones is scraped out and a stuffing is placed in their place.
The main condition is a snug fit of the cut to the board. Drying will be carried out directly on it. The most fragile part of the dummy is fish fins, for safety they can be placed in foil. After the makeup application procedure, the prepared carcass is fixed on the board with epoxy glue.
About stuffed invertebrates
Perhaps a stuffed fish these days is not so exotic. But not everyone knows that invertebrates can also be kept as a keepsake. A feature of their processing is immersion in a formalin bath for 3-4 days. Both small and large specimens (e.g. large lobsters) can be preserved if thoroughly dried.
The innards of invertebrates may not be removed. If the meat is well soaked in a formalin solution, it will not decompose and will dry well. Small details - tentacles, legs, mustaches - it is better to first cut it off, carefully pack it and deliver it to the place, then fix it on the body with wooden sticks coated with epoxy glue.
If you come across a starfish or a sea urchin, it is better not to abuse formalin. It should be mixed with sea water. Wait for the death of the marine life, otherwise it will cast off the rays and lose its attractive appearance.
The euthanized specimens are subjected to drying with hot air - a temperature of 100-150º on an iron sheet. Hot air has a "blowing" effect on their rays, which are filled and take their original form, and no longer lose it, cooling gradually.
How to save a clam
Inside, many mollusks come in a beautiful mother-of-pearl shade. During cooking, the mother of pearl will crack, and all beauty will be lost. If you want to preserve it, processing at high temperatures is best avoided.
The clam should be put in the freezer for a couple of days, then allowed to thaw. In an instance of moisture that has lost moisture, the entrails are removed quite easily by simple shaking. It is more difficult to remove them with the spiral shape of the mollusk, then preliminary soaking in formalin will be required.
Having made a stuffed fish with your own hands, you will not only leave a reliable memory in the form of a trophy, but also enrich the interior with original details.