Survival of Upper Piedmont Stream Fishes Implanted with 8-mm Passive Integrated Transponder Tags

Abstract

We studied weekly and bimonthly survival of select nongame fishes that were implanted with 8-mm PIT tags in upper Piedmont streams of South Carolina, USA. Weekly survival in stream enclosures was assessed for a total of 350 tagged individuals and 311 control (untagged) fish (39–101 mm TL; median = 65 mm TL) belonging to six species (Bluehead Chub Nocomis leptocephalus, Creek Chub Semotilus atromaculatus, Yellowfin Shiner Notropis lutipinnis, Mottled Sculpin Cottus bairdii, Northern Hog Sucker Hypentelium nigricans, and Striped Jumprock Moxostoma rupiscartes). Weekly survival rates ranged from 93.3% to 100% among species, with Yellowfin Shiners experiencing the lowest survival rate. Only 2 of the 337 surviving tagged individuals lost their tags (0.6% tag loss). Logistic regression indicated that species and body length were statistically significant predictors of survival and tag retention. Odds ratios indicated that tagged fish were 1.718 times less likely to survive than control fish, but the tagging effect was not statistically significant. Bimonthly survival was estimated by conducting a mark–recapture study from September 2015 to May 2016, which involved tagging 1,413 unique individuals of Bluehead Chub (45–75 mm TL) in a 520-m stream section and 431 individuals of Mottled Sculpin (45–75 mm) in another 740-m section. Bayesian state–space analysis of Cormack–Jolly–Seber models indicated that apparent survival did not differ between newly tagged and previously tagged (i.e., recaptured) individuals in any sampling interval, suggesting that the acute and chronic effects of tagging did not differ. Mean bimonthly apparent survival rate was 0.76 (95% credible interval = 0.64–0.86) for Bluehead Chub and 0.74 (95% credible interval = 0.59–0.88) for Mottled Sculpin. Our results indicate that PIT tags can be successfully applied to study the ecology and life history of small-bodied, nongame fish species, although caution should be exercised when selecting the species and body sizes to be tagged.

Received March 8, 2017; accepted August 1, 2017 Published online October 2, 2017

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research was financially supported by the Creative Inquiry program for undergraduate research and the College of Agriculture, Forestry, and Life Sciences at Clemson University. Field assistance was provided by Marxie Antonov, Mandy Bellamy, Morgan Brizendine, Daniel Dixon, John Dunn, Jesse Duvall, Parker Johnson, Daniel Jones, Ben Lam, Ryan Medric, Seth Mycko, Ashley Padgett, Cassidy Reese, Sara Rolfe, and Aaron Thompson. We thank Todd Dubreuil, Matthew O’Donnell, and Benjamin Letcher for their assistance in PIT tag technology. An earlier version of the manuscript was improved by the constructive comments of two anonymous reviewers.