Baited remote underwater stereo-video systems (BRUVs) are being adopted globally as a sampling method for surveying fish assemblages. The literature demonstrates that researchers are using different deployment times, rarely with justification for the time chosen. We aimed to determine the optimal deployment time of BRUVs to sample reef fish assemblages in temperate, sub-tropical and tropical locations along the west coast of Australia. Observations of fish species richness and abundance were compared between deployment periods of 0–15, 15–30, 30–45 and 45–60 min duration. Within the subtropical and tropical locations there was no significant difference in the composition of the fish assemblage beyond 15–30 and 30–45 min respectively, suggesting 30 and 45 min would be suitable. Whereas within the warm temperate location, fish assemblages differed across all deployment periods with at least 60 min required to best characterise the fish assemblage. Most species (60–71%) and individuals (50–75%) were observed within 15 min at all locations and trends in the arrival times of individual species proved to be variable and species-specific. Critically, some larger-bodied target species continued to arrive in high proportions up to 45–60 min at all locations. Despite differences in optimal deployment durations between locations, we recommend that 60 min of imagery be collected as the cost of collecting, storing and annotating the extra imagery is minimal in comparison to the full costs of a program or recollecting imagery. Researchers may choose to analyse the first 30 or 45 min of imagery if sampling subtropical or tropical fish assemblages, yet the full 60 min is available should there be a need for standardised soak times to address questions involving spatial and temporal data collected by different users.

诱饵远程水下立体视频系统（BRUV）已被全球广泛采用，作为调查鱼类种群的一种采样方法。文献表明，研究人员正在使用不同的部署时间，很少会为所选择的时间辩护。我们的目标是确定BRUV的最佳部署时间，以在澳大利亚西海岸的温带，亚热带和热带地区对珊瑚礁鱼类群进行采样。在部署时间为0-15分钟，15-30分钟，30-45分钟和45-60分钟之间比较了鱼类物种丰富度和丰度的观察结果。在亚热带和热带地区，分别超过15–30分钟和30–45分钟后，鱼类组合的组成没有显着差异，表明30分钟和45分钟是合适的。而在温暖的温带地区，鱼群在所有部署期间均不同，至少需要60分钟才能最好地描述鱼群。在15分钟内的所有位置上观察到大多数物种（60–71％）和个体（50–75％），并且单个物种到达时间的趋势被证明是可变的并且是特定物种的。至关重要的是，一些最大体的目标物种在所有地点持续高比例到达45–60分钟。尽管位置之间的最佳部署持续时间有所不同，但我们建议您收集60分钟的图像，因为与程序或重新收集图像的全部成本相比，收集，存储和注释额外图像的成本最小。如果对亚热带或热带鱼群进行采样，研究人员可以选择分析前30或45分钟的图像，