Comparison of Bone and Cartilage Staining Methods on Selected Minnow Species

Nurul Najwa, Mohd Nasir (2015) Comparison of Bone and Cartilage Staining Methods on Selected Minnow Species. [Final Year Project Report] (Unpublished)

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Abstract

The alizarin red and alcian blue staining protocol has been widely utilized for morphological studies of bone and cartilaginous tissues of various vertebrates. In fish, a few techniques are available depending on the nature, shape and size of the specimen. Each technique utilizes different combination and quantities of chemicals as well as variation in the amount of time spent to complete staining protocol. Therefore two published methods are compared in this study which are; Method 1: double staining protocol for larvae of large sized fish; and Method 2: general staining protocol for small fish with standard length of <_80 mm. This study uses individuals of local species namely Rasbora sarawakensis and Punnus banksi as specimens. The result shows that Method I is slightly better than Method 2 in terms of less time consumption, higher transparency and higher intensity of bone staining. Meanwhile Method 2 is more preferable if the study requires observation of the bone and cartilage structure of whole specimen. Using Method 1, satisfactory entire skeletal view was obtained for R. sarawakensis primarily due to the visibility of both bone and cartilage; while Method 2 works better on P. banksi since it is less destructive to this species. Information on optimal condition for staining is also provided.

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