Dawson, V. K., Bills, T. D., and Boogaard, M. A., 1998, Avoidance behavior
of ruffe exposed to selected formulations of piscicides: Journal of Great Lakes
Research, v. 24, no. 2, p. 343-350.

Abstract

Ruffe were introduced into Duluth Harbor, Minnesota in the early 1980s,
probably by release of ballast water from sea-going freighters. Since then, it
has become the most abundant species in the fish community. The sensitivity
of ruffe to a number of piscicides has been demonstrated, however, the
feasibility of using piscicides to control populations depends on whether ruffe
cart detect piscicides and move to untreated water, We used a two-choice
preference resting system to evaluate avoidance or attraction reactions of ruffe
during exposures to the lampricides TFM and bayluscide and the general fish
toxicants rotenone and antimycin. We used a second testing system to evaluate
the potential for benthic ruffe to move vertically in the water column to avoid
piscicides dissolving from experimental bottom-release formulations of
bayluscide and antimycin. Near-lethal concentrations of TFM and rotenone
tended to repel ruffe. Antimycin and bayluscide did not seem to repel ruffe in
the avoidance chamber, but bottom-release formulations (antimycin
granules-0.25% a.i. And bayluscide granules-3.2% a.i.) did cause increased
swimming and surfacing activity among ruffe in column tests. We conclude
that TFM and rotenone could be used to trent entire bodies of water, while
bottom-release formulations of antimycin and bayluscide may have more
application for treating localized concentrations of ruffe.

Keywords

ruffe, avoidance, attraction, piscicides, formulations, Lake Superior