Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations VIE tags?

I've been doing some researching on a way to mark the fish I hatch to collect growth data. I end up selling the fish once they get to trophy size to the taxidermy or replica market, so any form of mutilation is out of the question. I'm only interested in marking year classes to determine age, so a simple color for each year class will suffice. I.e. when I release my 2014 one year old yellow perch females from my indoor winter tank I'd use a particular color. 2015 will have a different color and so on.

I'm not impressed with floy tags, spaghetti tags or any tags that require a puncture that may end up being infected or has a limited life, and I've personally seen that.

To that end the following VIE (Visible Implant Elastomer) tags seem to be the ticket. And not that expensive I might add for small projects where manual injection is used. Anyone ever use them or have any thoughts on their use?

http://www.nmt.us/products/vie/vie.shtml?tab=2#kits

(click on the tab that says VIE manual injection kits)







This link is the manual that goes into more detail:

http://www.nmt.us/support/appnotes/ape06.pdf

Cecil, I don't get it. I looked at the link but didn't go into it in detail. Are you injecting a dye to identify the year class?

Interesting..... Any idea how many fish a ml will do?

Dave,

This link explains it in more detail but it's two part bio-compatible elastomer material that is mixed on site and injected just under the skin in an area of translucent skin. Lots of different colors and the florescent colors have the added advantage of being easier to detect with a special light provided with a kit.

http://www.nmt.us/support/appnotes/ape06.pdf

It depends on the size of the fish and how much is injected. Recommended 300 to 500 tags per ml but the manual says it can be as high as 15,000 per ml and as low as 127 per ml. (Page 12 second paragraph. )

http://www.nmt.us/support/appnotes/ape06.pdf

There's a 1 ml trial pack but it doesn't have the light.

I'd think you'd have to watch what amount of material you get as I doubt that it would have a long enough shelf life for you.

See my above post where I found your answer. I also read where you don't have to mix it all at once as long as you get the ratio right.

If the 1 ml trial pack will do the ~ 200 female perch I will be planting this year I'll go for it. However the smallest kit isn't too outrageous either. Or order a couple of trial packs?

My only concern is if I can still see most of these tags in four or five years. As long as it's a fairly high percentage it will be worth it. For example if the 12 to 13 inch fish are showing up with one color that shows they were planted as one year olds, and are now two year olds due to being in the pond another year that would be great. Same goes with 14 to 15 inch fish that were planted three or four years ago as one year old fish showing they are four to five year old fish due to a mixture of two colors. Each planting has a different color.

OK, I missed the light part on the first shot. Now I understand.

You have the option not to use the photosensitive material and light but they say the photosensitive material is more visible the longer the material is in the fish.

It's a decent rig for the intended purpose of year class. It's only one distinguishing bit of information tho.

Cecil has to watch out what he say's, because this requires a syringe to break the flesh on a fish to inject the boob enhancement silicone, and he's worried about infection with other syringes?

Same damn animal with RFID, just that the boob job might be cheaper in the short run.

We now know why his YP are plump! Silicone injections

Scott,

I talked to a biologist today at Northwest Marine Technology and she said a 1 ml kit should be enough for what I want to do. I asked her if she knew if they would last for the 4 to 7 years my perch and bluegill are in the pond, and she didn't know as most studies are not that long. She did say larger fish are able to hold on to the tags much longer as growth slows down. Also injecting more than one tag will make it more likely one will survive the duration.

The biocompatible medical grade material is injected just under the skin and not deeper, as in other tagging systems that require injection into the musculature -- and even fin bones of a fish such as spaghetti tags etc. -- so infection is not likely.

I'll be ordering a kit in the near future as it will be time to sex and plant my basement tank females into the pond once water temps match the tank temp.

I'll share results if anyone is interested.

With or without the VI light?

Won't need one right away.

It'd be nice to check how they look when new to get a baseline for a year or 6 down the road.

Probably. They aren't expensive to buy separately.