posted February 14, 2003 06:02 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I was wondering how fish react to being electro-shoked. More specificly:
- Do different species/sizes of fish react differently?

According to my literature larger fish are more affected by the electrical field.

- Do some fish die even when shocked by a professional?

Trout and salmon can be damaged by electrical shock. I have seen new studies that electrical shock can bruise and break the backs of trout and salmon affecting survival. Some agencies are backing off on electroshocking of trout and salmon.

- For how long do they stay immoble(in other words how long until they stap out of it)?
From my experience helping with electroshocking the fish (in this case bass and bluegill) twitch on the surface and when scooped up with a net and placed in a tank seem to remain docile for sometime. I don't know if a sedative was used.

- Are they entirely immoble or do they still move around a little on the surface? Most float up and twitch, some swim but are impaired. The ones barely in range sometimes swim away.

- Are they sluggish or disorented for an extended amount of time afterwards? Not very long when placed back into the water.

- Would threadfin shad sink when shocked due to thier lack of swim bladder? Don't know.

- Can elctro-shocking stress the fish leaving them vulnerable to disease? Any form of capture stresses a fish but they seem to recover.

- Are there any other possible side-effcts of elecro-shocking that I should know about?

Not side effects, but one must adjust electricity to the conductivity of the water. Too much conductivity is just as bad as too little.

If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.