Specimens in the Nunnally Ichthyology Collection are stored in ethanol. Occasionally the ethanol becomes discolored from pigment in the fish. Watch collections manager Sarah and M.S. student Miguel switch out 200 gallons of ethanol in our show-and-tell tank to prepare for our annual open house, Marine Science Day (and get a close-up view of our great white shark). #marinescience #fish #fishtok #science #sciencetok #shark #preservedfish #ethanol #naturalhistorycollection #fishcollection #whiteshark #greatwhiteshark #greatwhite #sharktok #pov #collectionmanagement #ichthyology #gradstudentlife

#microscopemonday ! Check out this larval fish, found by graduate student Miguel Montalvo in a preserved sample of plankton and larval fishes. Many marine fishes spend their young lives as pelagic larvae—swimming in the water column. Most don’t look like their parents at this stage, and undergo dramatic transformations as they grow to their adult form. The ribbon-like larval stage shown in this video is called a leptocephalus, meaning slender head. #fish #fishtok #marinescience #science #sciencetok #deepseafish #gulpereel #larvalfish #leptocephalus #underthemicroscope #preservedfish #fishcollection #fishresearch #ichthyology #ichthyologist #fishfacts #pelicaneel #eellarvae #fishlarvae #eel #deepseaeel

#fishyfriday What do Rudolph and the stoplight loosejaw have in common? They can both produce red light to see in the dark! Though, while Rudolph just wants to help Santa deliver presents to children, the stoplight loosejaw’s motivation is a bit more nefarious –they use their red light to illuminate their prey while hunting. In this video, Miguel Montalvo, a graduate student at VIMS, presents a preserved specimen of stoplight loosejaw (Malacosteus niger), which is a type of deep-sea dragonfish (family Stomiidae). #fish #fishtok #science #sciencetok #marinescience #loosejaw #stoplightloosejaw #preservedfish #fishcollection #deepseafish #photophore #bioluminescence #naturalhistorycollection

#fishyfriday Baby ocean sunfish are hard to come by, but VIMS is lucky enough to have several specimens in our fish library! Check out these larval slender sunfish (Ranzania laevis), which we show here under a microscope and as a CT scan. #fish #fishtok #marinescience #science #sciencetok #oceansunfish #ranzanialaevis #larvalfish #babyfish #mola #molids #microscope #underthemicroscope #ctscan #fishanatomy #diatoms #stomachcontents #fishstomach

AH-OOOOOOOO!!! These specimens are the perfect fishes to share for #fishyfriday during the Halloween season: wolffishes! Dr. Hilton presents 3 species of #wolffish (Atlantic and spotted wolffishes preserved in ethanol and Northern wolffish preserved as a #skeleton) #fish #fishtok #marinescience #preservedfish #science #sciencetok #osteology #ichthyology #ichthyologist #researcher #fishskeleton #fishcollection #naturalhistorycollection #fishresearch