A Comparison of Ageing Techniques to Improve Precision of Age Estimation from Fish Scales

Abstract

Scales of rudd, Scardinius erythrophthalmus (L, 1758), prussian carp, Carassius gibelio ( Bloch, 1782) and roach, Rutilus rutilus (L., 1758) were sampled from two different habitats. Two methods of determining age from scales of fish were applied for all fish species. There was disagreement between methods. The agreement between the determinations of different age readers was better with the impressing scale method than cleaning scale method. Impressing method produced the best results in terms of precision of the age estimates besides it had many advantages such as quick - apply, storing data and easy back-calculation.