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Visible Implant fluorescent Elastomer (VIE) 

Product Information

The VIE tagging method depends upon implanting material beneath transparent or translucent tissue. The fluorescent elastomer material is injected as a liquid that soon cures into a pliable, bio-compatible solid. Tests conducted by NM and others have clearly demonstrated that  shedding of the VIalpha is exacerbated with decreasing fish size and by relative stiffness of the tag. The contrasting texture of VIE, the small volume of material required, its tendency to occupy available space rather than displace and irritate surrounding tissue, combine to make VIE more useful in smaller specimens. 

An increasing body of literature documents the utility of VIE in very small aquatic animals. Frederick (1997) successfully VIE tagged reef fishes as small as 8 mm. Malone et al. (1999) found there to be no effect on growth and no increased predation on small gobies tagged with VIE tags. Godin et al. (1995) applied VIE tags to shrimp as small as 0.2 grams. Because of frequent requests for information, we've developed instructions for VIE tagging very small fish and shrimp with VIE.

The VIE colors facilitate visibility under normal lighting conditions and provide the option of greatly enhancing visibility under blue LED light or with other fluorescence enhancing techniques (see figure 3).  Please note that yellow and green can be difficult to differentiate between when fluoresced.  We recommend the use of a color test patch to confirm the color . Other color considerations can be found here. This feature was used to advantage by Buckley et al. (1994) in recovering small tagged reef fishes using ultraviolet underwater lights; and similarly, by Bonneau et al. (1995) in enumerating tagged trout in streams.

Figure 1: VIE tagged coho salmon (O. kisutch) smolt under ambient and U.V. light

Four fluorescent colors (red, yellow, green, and orange) and three non-fluorescent colors (black, blue, and purple) constitute the only intrinsic VIE codes. If only one mark per fish were used, the number of potential unique marks is simply the product of the numbers of colors used and the locations. However, if two marks are used in each specimen, in combination with several different locations, a surprising number of unique codes can be devised. The following formulas relate to determining the number of unique codes that can be devised utilizing more than one mark per individual:

Number of Unique Codes with Two Tags per Individual=
L x (L - 1) x C² /2
Number of Unique Codes with Three Tags per Individual=
L x (L - 1) x (L-2) x C³ /6

Where C = no. of colors used, and L = no. of body locations. For example, three body locations used with four colors, would provide: 3 x 2 x 1 x 64/6= 64 unique codes.

Figure 2: Tagging a coho salmon with elastomer using the hand injection method

Two methods are used to implant fluorescent elastomer: hand held/operated injectors (see figure 2) for relatively small lots and field work, and air powered injectors . The former devices are provided in Hand Injection Kits, which also include elastomer, waterproof viewing light, and other fluorescence viewing equipment.  Sustained tagging rates of 600/hour have been achieved using air powered injectors.

VIE Manual Injection Kits