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I'm looking for an effective and wife-friendly way of skeletalizing a 6" dead fish.

Small fish I've just left under an inverted coconut shell on the window sill, and that worked OK, but a 6" fish would smell too much. Moreover, the weather is getting colder, which increases the likelihood of mummification rather than skeletalization.

Any suggestions?

This depends on whether you want the skeleton to be articulated, or if you want a pile of fish bones.

If the latter, the easiest way would be to put it in a jar of water (it's going to smell some, though). If the former, the best bet is to consider a dermestid colony.

You could always google it. I'm sure they have plenty of ideas!

I sometimes use microworms to take the soft tissue off the skelton, however I must add that most times if you are not careful you are left with only the front end of the fish, but the bonus is there is not much of a pong

Thanks for the advice. A dermestid colony sounds interesting, but must remain a project for a future date.

When I reduced small fish (eg, Hara) in the past, the skeletons remained intact. Would say a Synodontis inevitably disintegrate into a heap of bones?

If you don't want the skeleton to disintegrate, you have to monitor the progress closely. The trick is to remove the skeleton before the connective tissues decay as well.

what are dermestids?

ants? beetles? non-insects?

They are beetles, I found this info about their use for cleaning bones:

Dermestid beetles are use by many natural history museums, anthropology departments and businesses to clean muscle and connective tissues from animal skeletons. Common names of some of the species include larder beetles, hide beetles, carpet beetles and fur beetles.


http://www.drwhitey.com/Skulls/dermestid.htm

My project is proceeding well. The flesh has disappeared and the skeleton retains integrity, but the skin still clings to the bones. Perhaps it will decompose away in a few more days if I keep it moist.

For next time, I was thinking of commercial meat tenderizer. Do the experts think it would expedite the stripping of the flesh and skin from the skeleton?

Meat tenderizer (which contains proteolytic enzymes) will hasten the disintegration of the ligaments if you are not too careful. I have found that heavily keratinized skin (e.g. such as that found in sisoroid catfishes) do not digest well in enzymes. It may be necessary to skin the fish before digestion in such cases.