Retention of Oxytetracycline-Induced Marks on Sagittae of Red Drum

Abstract

In a pilot-scale stocking program, juvenile red drum Sciaenops ocellatus were immersed for 4 h in a 500-mg/L active solution of oxytetracycline hydrochloride (OTC) and 15-g/L salinity water at a temperature of 26.2ЊC to mark the otoliths before release. A portion of the treated fish was retained to determine marking success and mark retention. Retained fish were held in outdoor tanks supplied with flow-through estuarine water from Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, and fed commercial trout diets daily. During a 4.4-year period, subsamples of treated fish were regularly sacrificed, and their sagittae were removed, sectioned, and examined under an epifluorescent microscope to validate presence of a mark. Because of interference from autofluorescence, OTC marks were not detectable on sagittae from fish sampled 56 d after immersion (N ϭ 4). However, a mark was visible on 100% of sagittae examined from treated fish sampled on nine occasions from 73 to 1,618 d after immersion (N ϭ 46). In a blind test, both marked and unmarked (wild) otoliths were assigned to their respective category with 100% accuracy. Thus, OTC immersion can be used to provide an accurate, long-term means of marking juvenile red drum.

Development and Evaluation of Methods for Osmotic Induction Marking of Golden Perch Macquaria ambigua with Calcein and Alizarin Red S

“…Photodegradation of external fluorescent marks has also been reported, and, depending on the light environment into which marked fish are reared or stocked, this may limit mark longevity (Leips et al 2001;Bashey 2004). It should be noted, however, that the internal fluorescent marks on the otoliths are likely to have much higher longevity than the external marks and that marked fish should remain detectable via examination of sectioned otoliths even in the absence of an external mark (e.g., Jenkins et al 2002).…”

Use of coded-wire and visible implant elastomer tags for marine stock enhancement with juvenile red snapper Lutjanus campechanus

“…Typically, stock enhancement programs require tags to be applied to many juvenile fishes with minimal harm yet have high information content and low associated costs (Blankenship and Leber, 1995). A variety of tag types have been used to monitor stocked individuals including genetic tags (Perez-Enriquez and Taniguchi, 1999;Saillant et al, 2004;Taniguchi, 2004), chemical and thermal marks (Smoker et al, 2000;Jenkins et al, 2004), internal tags (Davis et al, 2004;Brennan et al, 2005), electronic archival tags (e.g. Prentice et al, 1990), and external tags (Stoettrup et al, 2002).…”

Marking Otoliths and Fin Spines of Juvenile Shortnose Sturgeon with Oxytetracycline and the Effects of Water Temperature during Treatment

“…Because the goals of this study were to determine short-term retention of OTC marks on otoliths and fin spines of juvenile shortnose sturgeon, mark analysis was conducted at 21 d postmark. Research suggests that OTC marks on other long-lived fish species, including lake sturgeon Acipenser fulvescens (Rossiter et al 1995), white sturgeon Acipenser transmontanus (Rein and Beamesderfer 1994), and red drum (Jenkins et al 2002), can be detected up to 4 years following OTC treatment.…”

“…Chemical marks are an attractive alternative for fishery managers who want to mass-mark large quantities of fry in a single treatment. Oxytetracycline HCl (OTC) has been used to mark a variety of fish species in this way, and prolonged mark retention (>4 years) has been documented (in red drum Sciaenops ocellatus; Jenkins et al 2002), making it an ideal method for long-lived species such as the shortnose sturgeon.…”