Hello,

I have a question regarding drying of alcohol-stored specimens.

I searched the archives and found lots of info on how to store molluscs in
alcohol properly,
but almost nothing about how to dry them.

I have some tiny shelled gastropods from hydrothermal vents. They are all
stored (say  4-5 years) in alcohol (70% ethanol, I think). I would like to
dry some of them but don't know how  to do it properly.
The problem is that shells (not perio!) tend to crack very badly during the
drying (Naturaly, it always happen with rare specimens) This is probably due
to tensions caused by contraction of animal tissue.

I guess that  dilution of alcohol (by gradual adding of water) would prevent
cracking during the drying. But soft tissue would began to decay then,
wouldn't it?

I don't want to extract the animal, I want to keep it dry inside the shell.
Any suggestions how to this without losing the hard parts?

Thank you for your answers.

Milan





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