Collections
Collections and Associated Laboratories Platform
SAIAB is the custodian of the National Fish Collection of South Africa. The collection consists of about 80 000 lots of fish specimens (containing at least 650 000 individual fish specimens) from southern Africa and surrounding oceans, and from elsewhere in the world. It is the world’s largest collection of southern African fishes.
As well as adult and larval specimens preserved in propanol and ethanol (the vast majority), the collection and associated material consists of preparations of genetic material, cleared and stained preparations, dry skins and skeletons, otoliths, X-rays, photographs, drawings and paintings of fishes.
About 7500 species in about 400 families are represented in the collection.
Read more about the Collection Facility
Watch YouTube videos from our Collections Facility:
- Virtual tour into the Collections Facility
- Species preservation at the NRF-SAIAB Collections Facility
Link to the Molecular Laboratory page
Link to the Aquatic Ecophysiology Research Platform (AERP) page
SAIAB Collections data - Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) Data Search
GBIF data includes the whole SAIAB National Fish Collection, Amphibian Collection and collection of Invertebrates as well as observations and images
Amphibian Collection
- Link to the Eddie van Dijk Collection page at the Margaret Smith Library for bibliographies and codes
- The development of an amphibian research collection at SAIAB
Roger Bills
Diversifying the natural history collection has been an on-going focus of curation at SAIAB for some years.
Search the Marine fish eggs and larvae from the east coast of South Africa database compiled by the late Dr Allan Connell and hosted by SAIAB.
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