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!..HfO , I I I 1,\ U 5 ; ct d L I North American Journal of Fisheries Management 19:848-855, 1999 @ Copyright by the American Fisheries Society 1999 L);-i 71' Effects of Invasive Tissue Collection on Rainbow Trout, Razorback Sucker, and Bonytail Chub HAROLD M. TYUS*l Colorado River Fishes Project, U,S, Fish and Wildlife Service, 1680 West Highway 40, Vernal, Utah 84078, USA WAYNE C. STARNES North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences, Post Office Box 29555, Raleigh, North Carolina 27626, USA CATHERINE A. KARp2 Colorado River Fishes Project, U.S, Fish and Wildlife Service, 1680 West Highway 40, Vernal, Utah 84078, USA JAMES R SAUNDERS III Center for Limnology, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0216, USA Abstract,-Histological examination and biochemical assays of fish tissues are used for disease detection, ge- netic characterizations, contaminant analyses, and the detection of stable isotopes. However, tissue sampling usually requires invasive sampling procedures that may harm or kill an organism under investigation, For this reason, invasive procedures are rarely used with threat- ened, endangered, or other sensitive species, If invasive tissue sampling could be performed with little harm, a wide array of sophisticated techniques could be em- ployed to assist in protection and management of species in decline, We subjected rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss to nonlethal invasive sampling of fin, muscle, and liver tissue, Techniques first developed for trout were applied to two endangered fishes, razorback sucker Xy- rauchen texanus and bony tail chub Gila elegans, Acute (mortality) and chronic (suppression of growth rate) ef- fects of tissue removal were evaluated in a hatchery for control and treatment groups of experimental fishes, No mortality was attributable to tissue sampling in any of the three species, and there were no significant differ- ences in growth rates between control and treatment groups in rainbow trout or razorback sucker, Bony tail chub experienced high mortality due to an outbreak of disease that precluded an evaluation of chronic effects, but there was no indication that survivorship was de- creased due to tissue sampling, With recent advances in use of small tissue samples, these nonlethal invasive " . ~ * Corresponding author: harold,tyus@colorado.edu 1 Present address: Center for Limnology, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, Uni- versity of Colorado at Boulder, Colorado 80309-0221, USA. 2 Present address: Fisheries Applications Research Group, U,S, Bureau of Reclamation, Post Office Box 25007, Denver, Colorado 80225, USA, Received May I, 1998; accepted March 12, 1999 methods can make a variety of tissues available for his- tological evaluation, genetic characterization, or bio- chemical assay without sacrifice of valuable fish, Tissue samples have routinely been used for his- tological examination and biochemical assays, providing infonnation about fish disease, genetic composition, levels of contaminants, and relative concentration of stable isotopes. In the past, most of these evaluations have relied on large amounts of tissues that required the individual be sacrificed, However, recent technological developments have enabled use of relatively small tissue samples. For example, genetic assessments using polymerase chain reaction requires only tiny amounts of tissue to "amplify" pieces of DNA (Whitmore et a1. 1992; Simon et a1. 1994; Hillis et a1. 1996), Con- taminants and stable isotopic studies have previ- ously relied on use of ground-up whole fish or large fillets (e,g" Lowe et al, 1985; Schmitt et al. 1985; Hesslein et al, 1991). The amount of tissues currently required for these evaluations has also been greatly reduced due to better techniques and detection technology (Waddell and May 1995; Fry et a1. 1996), Noninvasive, nonlethal techniques are highly desirable for obtaining tissue samples because re- petitive samples can be taken from the same in- dividual over time and a large number of samples can be taken from fish populations with little or no mortality, The latter is especially important when dealing with endangered or other valuable species, and a variety of tissues might be satis- 848