Connectivity among estuarine habitats can influence nekton vital rates, and studying these processes requires the ability to track individuals effectively. Passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags have been used to evaluate movement of juvenile fishes in estuaries, yet this technique remains untested for penaeid shrimp. We evaluated survival, growth, and feeding behavior of juvenile white shrimp (Litopenaeus setiferus), an ecologically and economically important penaeid species along the US Atlantic and Gulf coasts, implanted with 8-mm PIT tags. Daily survival and tag retention observations and weekly length and weight measurements were made of tagged individuals (n = 18) kept in individual seawater tanks for 28 days, and compared with similarly housed untagged (control) individuals (n = 18). After four weeks, tagged and control shrimp were offered varying densities of a common estuarine prey item, grass shrimp (Palaemonetes spp.), in feeding trials. Tagged white shrimp exhibited 100% tag retention and an estimated probability of survival after 28 d that was not significantly different from control shrimp (0.81 and 0.94, respectively). We found no evidence of a relationship between tagging treatment or initial shrimp size on the probability of survival. Tagged shrimp demonstrated growth at rates that were not significantly different from control shrimp, and tagged and control shrimp exhibited nearly identical feeding rates on grass shrimp (Palaemonetes spp.) prey. Our results suggest PIT tag technology represents an effective tool to study the movement and vital rates of juvenile white shrimp during their estuarine residence.

河口栖息地之间的连通性会影响肾脏的生命率，研究这些过程需要有效跟踪个体的能力。被动集成应答器（PIT）标签已用于评估河口幼鱼的运动，但是该技术仍未经对虾的测试。我们评估了白色小虾（Litopenaeus setiferus）的生存，生长和摄食行为，该小虾是美国大西洋沿岸和墨西哥湾沿岸具有重要生态和经济意义的对虾种类，并植入了8毫米PIT标签。每日生存和标签的保留意见，并每周的长度和重量进行了测量标记的个体（ñ = 18）在单个海水缸中放置28天，并与类似安置的无标签（对照）个体进行比较（n  = 18）。四周后，在饲养试验中，给标记和对照虾提供不同密度的普通河口猎物草虾（Palaemonetes spp。）。标记的白虾表现出100％的标签保留率，估计28天后存活的可能性与对照虾无明显差异（分别为0.81和0.94）。我们没有发现标记处理或虾的初始大小与存活率之间有关系的证据。标记虾的生长速率与对照虾无明显差异，标记虾和对照虾对草虾的饲喂率几乎相同（Palaemonetes spp。）的猎物。我们的研究结果表明，PIT标签技术代表了一种有效的工具，可用于研究幼白虾在河口居住期间的运动和活力。