NOTE Bumguardner et al.: Long-term tag retention in juvenile Sciaenops ocellatus 



393 



study. Both X-ray negatives and the FSD indicated that 

 3 of 10 preserved fish lost tags. The criteria used to 

 select fish for this study, i.e., confirmation of tag 

 presence by the FSD, may have biased the comparison 

 by eliminating fish with weakly magnetized tags. 



Inserting coded wire tags horizontally in the cheek 

 musculature of red drum fingerlings resulted in low tag 

 retention. The site of tag insertion and tag orientation 

 may affect tag retention. Tags implanted in striped 

 bass Morone saxatilis and largemouth bass Microp- 

 terus salmoides cheek musculature resulted in higher 

 retention rates than tags placed in snouts of striped 

 bass and largemouth bass (Klar and Parker 1986, Flet- 

 cher et al. 1987, Williamson 1987). Changing the plane 

 of tag insertion in the cheek muscle may increase tag 

 retention. Dunning et al. (1990) reported coded-wire 

 microtag retention in striped bass (65-100 mm TL) was 

 greater when tags were inserted vertically rather than 

 horizontally in the cheek muscle. A possible explana- 

 tion of poor retention and high initial loss of wire 

 microtags implanted horizontally in the cheek muscle 

 of small fish may be the small margin of error in depth 

 placement of the tag, due to size and thickness of the 

 target area. Tags may be implanted too deeply, pene- 

 trate the muscle, and lodge in the buccal cavity. Anes- 

 thetized fish could retain the tag in the buccal cavity 

 while passing through the Quality Control Device which 

 magnetizes the tag and confirms tag presence, but then 

 eject the tag after regaining equilibrium in the recovery 

 tank. Changing tag orientation in the cheek muscle 

 from horizontal to vertical would provide a thicker 

 target for tag insertion and may be responsible for 

 higher reported retention of microtags inserted ver- 

 tically rather than horizontally in the cheek muscle of 

 small fish. 



Stocked red dnjm fingerlings are typically harvested 

 at about 25mm TL. Attempts to tag red drum of that 

 size with wire microtags have resulted in high mortality 

 (Gene McCarty, Texas Parks Wildl. Dep., Austin, un- 

 publ. data). Tagging larger fish might improve reten- 

 tion rates and would reduce tagging mortality, but the 

 fish would not be representative of the size of fish 

 normally stocked. These factors would complicate any 

 attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of stocking 

 hatchery-reared red drum fingerlings using fish tagged 

 with coded wire microtags. 



Acknowledgments 



We would like to acknowledge the assistance of Max- 

 ine Kubecka, D.V.M., Linda Kocurek, and the staff of 

 the Palacios Veterinary Clinic in obtaining X-ray nega- 

 tives. We also thank Paul Hammerschmidt for review- 



ing the manuscript. This study was conducted with par- 

 tial funding from the U.S. Department of the Interior, 

 Fish and Wildlife Service, under DJ 15.605 (Project 

 F-36-R). 



Citations 



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