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Hatchery Work


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#1 Guest_panfisherteen_*

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Posted 14 November 2010 - 03:11 PM

I have been helping out at the on-site muskellunge hatchery on campus for the past couple weeks (an hour or so here and there). The past two days I have helped tag and record the TL about 472 fish (these guys are going into Lake Simcoe for the restoration project to bring the muskies back), yesterday since we were tagging fish from georgian bay, we were tagging them behind the top fin. Today we were tagging them in the right cheek since these fish are from Gloucester Pool. The tags themselves are extremely small and have a tiny code on them invisible to the naked eye (so if someone is reading the tag, chances are the fish would be deceased). They do not have a chip in them, but a simple metal detector will detect the tag, and the location determines what family the fish is from (Georgian Bay or Gloucester Pool). Around 700 fish are going into Lake Simcoe tomorrow including the estimated 350mm display fish, more are going to Wisconsin thursday (I am not sure how many, but I am helping wednesday getting the fish ready to go for thursday morning) to help be the broodstock for a restoration project over there. Those fish will be entirely from Georgian Bay, and will be having their fins clipped until they reach a larger size next year. Six fish will be left over to be in the 100g display tank (they will be around 180-220mm long I'm guessing), in March three will be taken to be apart of a travelling display that the Royal Ontario Museum is creating on Lake Simcoe (which helps create room for the growing muskies).
Measuring TL
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Tagging (I tagged around 50 individuals)
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The display fish (that's going tomorrow)
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#2 Guest_schambers_*

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Posted 14 November 2010 - 06:35 PM

How cool! That must be awesome to take part in. There was an episode of Dirty Jobs recently where they were working with sea lampreys tagged with those tags. Mike cut the lamprey into halves until he found the tag, then they read it under a microscope.

#3 Guest_panfisherteen_*

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Posted 14 November 2010 - 06:57 PM

well its better to work with those tags because of their size, since the fish are small, using PIT tags would most likely do a lot of damage, where as these tags cause basically a small puncture or two in the skin (depending on how co-operative the fish and the tags are lol). I think I have tagged at least 100 fish out of the ones headed for simcoe. I do find it cool to be able to help out with the program by just volunteering, the guy who runs it is an awesome guy :cool2:

#4 Guest_FishheadDave_*

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Posted 15 November 2010 - 08:42 AM

Have there been many problems with cannibalism (for the fish, not the volunteers)?

My past experience with other Esox species has been that they will eat (or die trying to eat) conspecifics of almost the same size.

#5 Guest_panfisherteen_*

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Posted 15 November 2010 - 12:17 PM

Mark said theres always the odd one, but feeding them pellets and making sure there aren't any really small muskies in with larger ones help keep it down, but every once in a while it happens, whether it be on purpose or swiping at food and getting a muskie instead :fishy:



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