Fish Aging

Hey everyone, long time no post. Anyhow, i am doing a project for my college Biology class and I was just wondering what the safest and correct way is for harvesting scales from a live fish. I have done it before to wild fish and dead fish, but I am getting the scales from my own fish and so of course I don't want to do anything to hurt them. If someone could please give me some insight and information it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much for your time everyone.


Tim

I would try to keep the fish in water and use a pair of tweasers so you can remove them as quickly as possible. You will obviously cause a small amount of damage no matter how you do this but I think if you take care to only remove 2-3 scales per fish and not from the same point on the fishes body, and the fish was healthy to begin with, you should be able to do this without causing any permanent damage. I also would not recomend trying this with smaller species like minnows or darters because it would be difficult to do it without causing a great deal of stress on the fish.

The most efficient way to collect scales from live fish is to keep them in a darkened room and then suddenly turn on the light hood while simultaneously rapping loudly on the glass with your knuckles.