Effects of size of streamer tags on mortality and growth of juvenile eastern king prawns Penaeus plebejus

Abstract

During the 60 d experiment, apparent mortality was greatest over the first 5 and 6 d for small and large tags respectively. At the end of the experiment, mean apparent mortality was 2, 52 and 65% for controls, small and large tags respectively. Shedding the tags contributed 14 and 19% to the apparent mortality of prawns tagged with the small or large tags respectively. Growth increments of prawns surviving to the end of the experiment did not differ between prawns tagged with large or small tags, but females had a bigger increase in carapace length (CL) than males. Streamer tags of the sizes tested were considered unsuitable for tagging eastern king prawns of 17-27 mm CL. -from Authors