Detection Efficiency of a Portable PIT Antenna for Two Small-Bodied Fishes in a Piedmont Stream. (2nd November 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kelly, Brett B.; Cary, Joshua B.; Smith, Alisha D.; Pregler, Kasey C.; Kim, Seoghyun; Kanno, Yoichiro
• Is Part Of: North American journal of fisheries management. Volume 37:Number 6(2017)
• Page Start: 1362
• Page End: 1369
• Publication Date: 2017-11-02
• Subjects: Fishery management -- United States -- Periodicals; 333.956097305
• DOI: 10.1080/02755947.2017.1388886
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0275-5947

Abstract

Abstract: Passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags have been used to infer demography and behavior of lotic fishes, but their application has mostly been limited to salmonids. We studied the efficiency of a portable PIT antenna in a small Piedmont stream (mean width = 2.4 m) in South Carolina by comparing two tag sizes (8- and 12-mm full-duplex tags) applied to two nongame species (Mottled Sculpin Cottus bairdii and Creek Chub Semotilus atromaculatus ). A 285-m stream reach was blocked off under base flow conditions in September 2016, and 8- or 12-mm PIT tags were implanted in 67 Creek Chub (62–138 mm TL) and 65 Mottled Sculpin (60–88 mm TL). Starting at 1 d after tagging, the study reach was sampled with the portable PIT antenna twice daily for five consecutive days, during which apparent survival of tagged fish was assumed. Generalized linear mixed-effects models with a logistic link identified that detection efficiency depended on species, tag size, body length, and the species × body length interaction. Mottled Sculpin had detection rates of 56% (8-mm tags) and 79% (12-mm tags), with 67% of detections occurring in riffle-dominated sections, whereas Creek Chub had 3% (8-mm tags) and 16% (12-mm tags) detection rates, with 62% of detections occurring in pool-dominated sections. Detection efficiency decreased with body size in Creek Chub but not in Mottled Sculpin; the observed decrease for Creek Chub was most likely attributable to an ontogenetic habitat shift. The reasonably high detection efficiency of Mottled Sculpin, even with 8-mm tags, suggested that the portable PIT antenna can be a viable option for some species in small streams, allowing individual-based approaches to studying small-bodied species or earlier life stages without the need for repeated physical capture and handling. Received May 13, 2017; accepted October 2, 2017Published online November 10, 2017