Survival of Upper Piedmont Stream Fishes Implanted with a Passive Integrated Transponder Tag

We studied weekly and bi-monthly survival of select non-game fishes in upper Piedmont streams of South Carolina implanted with an 8-mm passive integrated transponder (PIT) tag. Weekly survival rates were 96% and tag retention rates of surviving individuals (>40mm TL) kept in stream cages were >99% across species (Bluehead Chub Nocomis leptocephalus, Creek Chub Semotilus atromaculatus, Yellowfin Shiner Notropis lutipinnis, Mottled Sculpin Cottus bairdii, and Striped Jumprock Moxostoma rupiscartes) and these rates did not differ from control cages where individuals were kept for a week without being implanted with a PIT tag. Bi-monthly survival was inferred by conducting a mark-recapture study based on tagging >2,400 individuals of Bluehead Chub, Creek Chub, Mottled Sculpin and Striped Jumprock in two stream sections (740m and 520m long). A Bayesian state-space analysis of Cormack-Jolly-Seber models indicated that survival and detection probabilities differed among species and sites. Additional data collection is ongoing to understand demographic response and synchrony among these species. Our initial results indicate that PIT tags can be successfully applied to study population dynamics of small-bodied non-game fish species.