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Validation of a simple and well‐suited chemical cleaning method for fish otoliths
Author(s) -
Vandenbussche Pierre S.P.,
Spennato Guillaume,
Francour Patrice,
Pierson Patricia M.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
acta zoologica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.414
H-Index - 37
eISSN - 1463-6395
pISSN - 0001-7272
DOI - 10.1111/azo.12209
Subject(s) - otolith , biology , fish <actinopterygii> , fishery , dicentrarchus , biochemical engineering , biological system , engineering
In marine biology, many research fields are based on use of fish otoliths. All the studies dealing with otoliths need as starting point a perfectly clean otolith. Dissection is difficult when working on small or highly jagged otoliths. A common problem is that during otolith preparation some fish tissue may remain stuck to it, even after a mechanical cleaning. Then, supplementary cleaning with chemicals is needed. Classical methods are known to possibly alter otolith's structure and/or composition. Here, we present a chemical cleaning method using only sodium hydroxide. We have validated the method on two different fish species, Oblada melanura and Dicentrarchus labrax . Observation and analyses of morphological measurements have confirmed significant suppression of residual tissues. We propose this method as a good alternative to previously published mono‐ or multichemical methods.