The external tags use for identification of spawner fat snook, Centropomus parallelus, in tanks

Abstract

A system for the visual identification of fish, by means of nylon tags (anchor tag), associated with colored beads, was tested with fat snook, Centropomus parallelus, spawners kept in confinement in sea water. The selected fish were anaesthetized with benzocaine and an anchor tag was attached to the caudal peduncle with a tag machine, and a small colored bead was fixed to the nylon label. In the perforated region, garamicina ointment and mercurochrome were applied as prophylaxis, before the fish were returned to their maintenance tanks. The spawners identification was carried out through the visualization of their respective colors. The region of the caudal peduncle chosen for tagging was effective, but the perforated region swelled up. It was also verified that the tagging of spawners was sufficiently effective for a period of time of approximately one month. These results suggest that the methodology used in this study was effective for the tagging of robalo-peva for a short period of time.