Evaluation of visible fluorescent elastomer tags implanted in marine medaka, Oryzias dancena

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess visible implant fluorescent elastomer (VIE) tagging and stress response in marine medaka, Oryzias dancena. The experimental fish were anesthetized individually and marked with red, yellow, or green elastomer at each of the following three body locations: (1) the abdomen, (2) the back, and (3) the caudal vasculature. During 12 months, the accumulated survival rates of fish in the experimental treatments were not different among red, yellow, and green elastomers. The experimental fish retained > 85% of the tags injected in the back, > 70% of the tags injected in the caudal vasculature, and > 60% of the tags injected in the abdomen (P < 0.05). An important observation was that the abdomen site was associated with poor tag retention. For all injected sites, the red and green tags were able to be detected more easily than the yellow tags when observed under both visible and UV lights. Tag readability was lower for the abdomen site than for the other sites (back and caudal vasculature). Thus, VIE tags were easy to apply to marine medaka (< 1 min per fish) and were readily visible when viewed under UV light.