Validation of Daily Otolith Increments for Young-of-the-Year White Crappies

Abstract

Otolith increments formed daily in age-0 white crappies Pomoxis annularis; the first increment was present at hatch. We validated daily increments in larvae by comparing the number of rings with known age; for juveniles, we compared the number of rings past a tetracycline mark with the number of days elapsed since marking. Accuracy in ring counts decreased with fish older than 100 d. Starvation did not affect ring periodicity. The regression equation for otolith radius (R, mm) against fish total length (TL, mm) was TL = 54.9R + 3.32; the TL-intercept was not significantly different from zero. These results allow determination of hatching dates, age-specific mortality rates, and growth-rate patterns for age-0 white crappies.