Gas bubble disease in resident fish below Grand Coulee Dam

Archive tags recording pressure (i.e., depth) and temperature were implanted in adult fish within the reservoir downstream from Grand Coulee Dam during 1999, 2000 and 2001 to determine their relative exposures to total dissolved gas supersaturation (TDGS), the causative agent of gas bubble disease. Triploid steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss; STH) reared in net pens at a commercial fish farm and wild bridgelip sucker (Catostomus columbianus; BLS), largescale sucker (C. macrocheilus; LSS), longnose sucker (C. catostomus; LNS), northern pikeminnow (Ptycocheilus oregonensis; NPM) and walleye (Stizostedion vitreum; WAL) from the reservoir were implanted with tags programmed to record pressure and temperature every 15 min. Tags from 7 net pen fish and 17 wild fish were recovered after data collection ranging from 16 to 156 d. The data indicated abrupt changes in depths of all fish near sunrise and sunset. Most fish were deeper during the night than in the day, but the longnose suckers and some walleye were shallowest during the night. The median depths of each species, in ascending order, were STH (1.6 m), NPM (2.0 m), BLS (2.8 m), WAL (3.7 m), LNS (5.2 m) and LSS (6.8 m). The TDGS during the study period was less than levels known to cause gas bubble disease in resident fish, so the relative exposure to TDGS was evaluated by comparing the time and distance shallower and deeper than the hydrostatic compensation depth at a hypothetical TDGS of 130%. The hydrostatic compensation depth is the depth at which the hydrostatic pressure equals the total gas pressure and below which gas bubble disease does not typically occur. The relative exposures, in ascending order of severity, were LNS, LSS, WAL, BLS, NPM and STH. Based on these results, the STH from the net pens are expected to show signs and mortality due to gas bubble disease prior to several of the resident species tested, though species-specific tolerances to TDGS should also be considered.

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