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Effect of T‐Bar Anchor Tags on Growth of Black Crappies
Author(s) -
Parsons Bradford G.,
Reed Jeffrey R.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
north american journal of fisheries management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.587
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1548-8675
pISSN - 0275-5947
DOI - 10.1577/m04-178.1
Subject(s) - fish <actinopterygii> , bar (unit) , biology , population , demography , fishery , geography , sociology , meteorology
T‐bar anchor tags provide a means for identifying individual fish in tagging experiments. Despite prior use, no information is available regarding the effect of these tags on the growth of black crappies Pomoxis nigromaculatus. We compared the growth of black crappies larger than 180 mm total length that were tagged with t‐bar anchor tags with the growth of untagged members of the same cohort over 1‐year periods in four Minnesota lakes. We found no difference in the growth of tagged and untagged black crappies in three of the lakes, but in the fourth lake growth of tagged fish averaged 3.7 mm less than that of untagged fish. While the effect on the growth of individual fish may be substantial, the overall effect on the population of tagged black crappies was minor. Therefore, concerns about effects on growth should not deter the use of t‐bar anchor tags for tagging black crappies.