For histological studies I would recommend Bouins fluid or another
histological fixative that contains a lot of acetic acid. You have to crack
the shell at some points to allow the fluid to go in and fix the tissue. In
very thick or big shells you may use a Dremel device to cut and bore a
fenestration into the shell every 1-2 cm. After fixation for a day you may
have to change the fluid to add new acid. The yellow color of the picrin
acid have to be washed out afterwards with 70% alcohol befor further
processing. This fixative is not good for carefully anatomical dissectioning
as it hardens the tissue but it will work well with additional paraffin
embedding.
Another way to dissolve the shell is to use buffered chelat-complex building
chemicals such as EDTA. This may take a really long time to dissolve the
shells (weeks to months) so you have to use a fixative first anyway. Another
problem is the relaxing of the animal before fixation if you are interested
in non bivalve molluscs...
Best regards
Bernd Sahlmann
from Munich


----- Original Message -----
From: "Felicia Zahida" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, April 12, 2006 4:49 AM
Subject: How do you open hard thick shells w/o destroy the flesh?


> Dear all,
>
> I would like to ask how do you open hard thick shells
> without destroy the flesh for anatomical study?
>
> I did it only to freshwater and terrestrial snails in
> which the shells are thin and big enough, but not for
> small shells commonly found in beaches.
>
> Is there any tools to crack the shell? what is the
> name and where to buy?
>
> Thanks a lot
> Felicia-Indonesia
>
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