Tag retention and mortality in inland reservoir channel catfish
Loading...
Date
2017-05
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The Ohio State University
Abstract
Channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) is a popular sport fish that is native to Ohio and routinely stocked in reservoirs by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources-Division of Wildlife (ODNR-DOW). Toward helping the ODNR-DOW evaluate its stocking program, we experimentally tested the use of an internal, coded-wire tag (CWT) as a method for marking juvenile channel catfish that are released from the hatchery such that they can be differentiated from wild-produced channel catfish. The retention rate of CWTs and their effect on individual growth and mortality remain largely unexplored for channel catfish. Both attributes were quantified and compared between the two age-classes (i.e., age-0 fingerlings and age-1 yearlings) of channel catfish at various time points (i.e., after 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month, and monthly thereafter) of our six-month experiment. For both age-classes, tag retention rates were high (90-100%), with no observed reduction in growth or increase in mortality. Our findings suggest that CWTs are a reliable, effective means of marking channel catfish, and hence, we recommend their use by ODNR-DOW to differentiate hatchery-reared individuals from wild-produced ones.
Description
2016 Undergraduate Research Scholarship Recipient
Keywords
catfish, channel catfish, coded wire tag, tagging