Crappie Age

[Len]

How can a person determine the age of a Crappie?

[Moose1am]

Len:
There are several ways to age a fish. One is to dissect the fish and obtain the little bone in the fish's ear and do a cross section of that material. The number of growth rings in the cross section will help you determine the age of the fish. One can also obtain scale samples and age the fish by counting the growth rings. The growth rings get real close together in the winter time as the fish is not growing fast. During the summer months when the fish is growing faster the growth rings are farther apart. All you do is determine the number of winters the fish lived though and that is the age of the fish. It's similar to aging a tree in a way. There may be other scientific ways to age a fish but I am not aware of them.

Without being scientific you can determine the age of a fish in some lakes by knowing the average lenght of the fish of different ages. Then by measuring the lenght of the crappie you may be able to give a good estimate of it's age.

Some of your bigger fish are 6 or 7 years old. It take about 4 years for the crappie to get over 10" if my memory serves me right. But don't quote me on that last sentence. Ask Crappepappy as he has some good information about how to age fish by their lenght.

How can a person determine the age of a Crappie?

[crappieseeker]

Hey Moose, I read in a crappie book that crappie very seldom, if ever, live beyond 6 or 7 years. The book said that the longest one to have lived in captivity was 6 years. It said they reach measuring length by 3 years and grow 2 to 3 inches every year after that. I'm not so sure I believe it after what I've read on here, but it was a published book. Crappiepappy knows his stuff pretty good, maybe he can answer this.

[CrappiePappy]

comes off the DNR and study sites I read (after I GOOGLE them up ..LOL!!)

Seeker ... actually, there was a Black Crappie in Fla that lived to be 11 years old. (but I don't know if it was in captivity, or after being caught, its age was determined by the Fla DNR)

Under optimum conditions ... usually 8yrs is the max. Florida's average is about 5years. (and Fla has no White Crappie) Ky's average is 5-7yrs (depending on area of the state).
It depends on the lake and area of the country, as much as anything else, how fast crappie grow in their lifespan .... so trying to determine a fish's age by its length is a lesson in futility. And Black Crappie and White Crappie can be the same age, and have several inches difference between them....especially the "bigger" ones (>12 in.)

Len - Indiana is considered a "northern" region - so your growth rates would be somewhat slower over the average lifespan. Most Crappie are mature enough to spawn by their third year of "age" ... even though some may only be 8" long (from one lake) and others are 10" long (from another, more fertile lake - or one containing more optimum conditions and food sources). Trying to "age" a fish, for the average joe, is a "best guess" scenario. There's just too many variables that can skew your figures ....LOL!! If you really want to know, and don't have the equipment to find out by yourself (like a microscope to count the rings on a fish scale) ... you might send some sample scales to your local DNR or Fish & Wildlife folks, and have them check it for you (if they will). .............luck2ya ...........cp

[Moose1am]

Radio Shack sold these tiny plastic microscopes. They have a small battery compartment and take a small AAA battery. There is a built in light bulb inside. You can get them and use them. I have two of these devices. One low power and the other is higher power. These are not real microscope but more akin to magnifying glasses that are very powerful. You look into an hole in one end and then put the specimen on the table and press the other end over the specimen to observe.

The problem with fish scales is that when they dry out they are curved. The middle of the fish scales is humped up. They remind me of the shape of those old hard contact lenses for vision correction. ( I am dating myselft here- LOL I wore those back when I was in highschool 1966) What helps is to use an emersion oil that is a contrasting Refractive Index to the fish scale) Then put the scale on a microscope slide and add a drop of emersion oil to the fish scale. Then place a cover slip (Square or Round Regular thickness) over the fish scale to try to hold if flat on the glass microscope slide. That helps somewhat. Then using a 10X objective and a 10X WF eyepiece you can quickly observe the fish scale under 100X power. If that is too high power then drop down to a 4X objective to look at the sample at 40X power. A good plan acromatic objective lense helps. I prefer the Oylmpus PLM Microscopes with 100 watts of lighting in the base unit myself.

I have a picture of a fish scale that I used for this question some time ago. I looked for that picture but could not locate it on my computer. I think I stored it on my MSN Web Photo Site that I started. I may scan it again out of my college (Ichthyology). I should have saved it on my own hard drive where it is much easier to get to.

comes off the DNR and study sites I read (after I GOOGLE them up ..LOL!!)

Seeker ... actually, there was a Black Crappie in Fla that lived to be 11 years old. (but I don't know if it was in captivity, or after being caught, its age was determined by the Fla DNR)

Under optimum conditions ... usually 8yrs is the max. Florida's average is about 5years. (and Fla has no White Crappie) Ky's average is 5-7yrs (depending on area of the state).
It depends on the lake and area of the country, as much as anything else, how fast crappie grow in their lifespan .... so trying to determine a fish's age by its length is a lesson in futility. And Black Crappie and White Crappie can be the same age, and have several inches difference between them....especially the "bigger" ones (>12 in.)

Len - Indiana is considered a "northern" region - so your growth rates would be somewhat slower over the average lifespan. Most Crappie are mature enough to spawn by their third year of "age" ... even though some may only be 8" long (from one lake) and others are 10" long (from another, more fertile lake - or one containing more optimum conditions and food sources). Trying to "age" a fish, for the average joe, is a "best guess" scenario. There's just too many variables that can skew your figures ....LOL!! If you really want to know, and don't have the equipment to find out by yourself (like a microscope to count the rings on a fish scale) ... you might send some sample scales to your local DNR or Fish & Wildlife folks, and have them check it for you (if they will). .............luck2ya ...........cp