Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) Tagging Did Not Negatively Affect the Short‐Term Feeding Behavior or Swimming Performance of Juvenile Rainbow Trout

Passive integrated transponder (PIT) tagging is a commonly used procedure to identify fish. However, there is a lack of research on the short‐term effects of such tagging. The purpose of our study was to measure the short‐term effects of PIT tagging on the feeding behavior and swimming performance of juvenile rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss. Three experiments were conducted. The treatment groups in the first two experiments consisted of a control group and a PIT‐tagged group. In the first experiment, we timed the latency to resume feeding before and after the experimental day in fish trained to feed with a light cue. In the second experiment, we recorded the amount of food ingested before and after the experimental day in fish that had been fed to satiation every day for a week prior to the experiment. We found no significant differences between control and PIT‐tagged groups for either the latency to resume feeding (time from providing food to food intake) or the amount of food eaten. The third experiment consisted of a fixed‐velocity swimming performance test in which fish that had been tagged 40 d before the test and whose wounds had healed were compared with fish that were tagged on the day of the experiment. We found no significant differences between the fish that had healed wounds and fish that had just been tagged.