Survival and swimming performance in small-sized South European Cypriniformes tagged with passive integrated transponders

Abstract

A fundamental assumption in animal telemetry is that the behavior and performance of tagged animals do not substantially deviate from that of untagged animals. For fish, swimming behavior is fundamental for every part of a fish post-hatch life, influencing predator-prey interactions, movement ecology, and habitat choice. Here, we study the effects of PIT-tagging on survival and a range of swimming behaviors for South European nase (Protochondrostoma genei) and brook barbel (Barbus caninus), two small-sized, stream-dwelling cypriniforms native to the Italian peninsula. Effects on volitional swimming activity (sustained swimming) and maximum swimming speed (escape response; burst swimming) were tested in arena trials. Tagging effects on the prolonged swimming performance were tested in South European nase in an increasing velocity time-to-fatigue test, while a barrier passage test was designed to further investigate tagging effects in brook barbel. Both species displayed very high survival (95–100%), with no difference between tagged and control fish. No fish lost a tag during the 64 days of the study, and no tagging effect on swimming activity, prolonged swimming performance, barrier passage rate, or escape response was detected. Our results indicate that PIT-telemetry is a suitable tool to study the tested fish species.

Keywords:

• Brook barbel
• South European nase
• swimming behaviour
• telemetry
• PIT-tags
• tagging effects

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge Florian Eggers, Gloria Mozzi, Usama Ashraf, Costantino Manes, and Armando Piccinini for technical assistance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research work has been funded by the European Union Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions, Grant Agreement No. 86080 and part of the work performed within LIFE21-NAT-IT-LIFE Minnow, 101074559 “Small fish, small streams, big challenges: conservation of endangered species in tributaries of the upper Po River”.