User Guide & FAQ

tags and tagging icon

Tags & Tagging

  • How do I prepare a file for upload?

    • Files to be uploaded to Hydra must be either comma-delimited value files or Excel files of type .xls (.xlsx files are not currently supported.

    All files must have a single header row which identifies the columns of the table. If an Excel file contains multiple sheets, all sheets are ingested.

    For Tagging files, the following column headers are required; files without these headers, including capitalization, will be rejected:

    • Tag_ID — The tag ID, a number like 12345.
    • Code_Space — The tag's code space, like A69-1303 or A69-1206.
    • Tagging_Date — The tagging date, in the format "MM/DD/YYYY" (in Excel files, any legal date or date/time format is acceptable).

    The following fields are ingested by Hydra if present, but are optional:

    • Researcher — The name of the researcher. This must exactly match the name of the Hydra user, if these taggings are to be matched to that researcher.
    • Species — The formal name of the animal species.
    • Subspecies — The formal name of the animal subspecies.
    • Lifehistory — The animal lifehistory.
    • Race — The animal race.
    • Animal_Weight — The weight of the animal in kilograms; this is a decimal number.
    • Animal_Length_Total — The total length of the animal in centimeters; this is a decimal number
    • Animal_Length_Fork — The fork length of the animal in centimeters; this is a decimal number
    • Gender — The gender of the animal; one of M, F, U or blank.
    • Collection_Method — The method of collection.
    • Tagging_Location — A name for where the fish was tagged.
    • Study_Name — A copy pasted name for a Study, created in the hydra website.

  • How do I upload a file?

    • To upload a file:

    1. Sign in
    2. Navigate to the Data -> Upload page
    3. Click the Chose File button
    4. Select your File
    5. Click the Upload files button

    Large files can take significant time to upload; do not cancel and retry the upload. More than one file can be uploaded at once.

    Once the files are uploaded, they are queued for processing. You will receive an email when they are ingested into Hydra.

  • How do I download my tag/tagging data?

    • To download selected data:

    1. Sign in
    2. Navigate to the Data -> Download page
    3. Make the appropriate selections of the data you wish to download
    4. Select your File
    5. Click the Download button

    All downloads are comma-separated value files (.csv), with appropriate headers.

  • How do I share my tagging data?

    • Sharing options are found on the Data -> Sharing page. If the individual that you wish to share the information with is not present, please contact us.

  • How do I view my duplicate tag IDs?

    • Hydra provides a download option for duplicate tag IDs; you can find this on the download page as one of the available options.

receiver deployments icon

Receiver Deployments

  • How do I prepare a file for upload?

    • Files to be uploaded to Hydra must be either comma-delimited value files or Excel files of type .xls (.xlsx files are not currently supported.

    All files must have a single header row which identifies the columns of the table. If an Excel file contains multiple sheets, all sheets are ingested.

    For Receiver Deployment files, the following column headers are required; files without these headers, including capitalization, will be rejected:

    • Start_Date — The deployment start date, in format "MM/DD/YYYY" or "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS" (in Excel files, any legal date or date/time format is acceptable). (Note that in order to be a valid date format, Excel must parse the field as a date; typically, this means it will be right-aligned in the Excel spreadsheet. If your text is left-aligned, your date format may have problems.) All times will be assumed to be in UTC.
    • Receiver_Type — The receiver type, as a text string - like "VR2W"
    • Serial_Number — The receiver serial number, as a text string - like "102169"
    • Latitude — The latitude of the deployment, in degrees, as a decimal number.
    • Longitude — The latitude of the deployment, in degrees, as a decimal number.

    The following fields are ingested by Hydra if present, but are optional:

    • End_Date — The end date of the deployment. If this is absent or blank, the deployment will be considered still in service. (See Start_Date for details.)
    • Location — The human readable location of the deployment.
    • Researcher — The name of the researcher. This must exactly match the name of the Hydra user, if these deployments are to be matched to that researcher.
    • River_KM — The number of kilometers along the river the receiver is from the designated zero point. This may be a floating point decimal value (e.g. 50.62). This is not the straight-line distance, but rather takes into account the path of the river.
    • River_Zero_KM — The reference point from which the River_KM numbers have been measured. This can be a text description (e.g. "Golden Gate Bridge") and/or a latitude & longitude in decimal degrees.

  • How do I upload a file?

    • To upload a file:

    1. Sign in
    2. Navigate to the Data -> Upload page
    3. Click the Chose File button
    4. Select your File
    5. Click the Upload files button

    Large files can take significant time to upload; do not cancel and retry the upload. More than one file can be uploaded at once.

    Once the files are uploaded, they are queued for processing. You will receive an email when they are ingested into Hyrda,

  • How do I download my tag/tagging data?

    • To download selected data:

    1. Sign in
    2. Navigate to the Data -> Download page
    3. Make the appropriate selections of the data you wish to download
    4. Select your File
    5. Click the Download button

    All downloads are comma-separated value files (.csv), with appropriate headers.

tag detections icon

Tag Detections

  • How do I prepare a file for upload?

    • The ideal form for detection uploads is direct export from the VUE software as CSV. Any other files will be processed as a best effort. If at all possible, export CSV directly from VUE to be uploaded. Otherwise, files to be uploaded to Hydra must be either comma-delimited value files or Excel files of type .xls (.xlsx files are not currently supported.

    All files must have a single header row which identifies the columns of the table. If an Excel file contains multiple sheets, all sheets are ingested.

    For Tag Detection files, the following column headers are required; files without these headers, including capitalization, will be rejected:

    • Date and Time (UTC) — The detection time, in format "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS" (in Excel files, any legal date/time format is acceptable). All date/time values must be in UTC, and corrected for time drift.
    • Receiver — The identifier for the receiving station, like VR2W-102153
    • Transmitter — The tag which was detected, like A69-1303-4325

    The following fields are ingested by Hydra if present, but are optional (although some combinations are required; please note the details):

    • Sensor Value — The sensor value of the detection. Must be a number
    • Sensor Unit — The sensor unit of the detection. Typically something like "ADC".

    When exporting data, please ensure you corrected for time drift and choose the "Raw Sensor Data" option instead of the "Calibrated Data" option.

  • How do I upload a file?

    • To upload a file:

    1. Sign in
    2. Navigate to the Data -> Upload page
    3. Click the Chose File button
    4. Select your File
    5. Click the Upload files button

    Large files can take significant time to upload; do not cancel and retry the upload. More than one file can be uploaded at once.

    Once the files are uploaded, they are queued for processing. You will receive an email when they are ingested into Hyrda,

  • How do I download my detection data?

    • To download selected data:

    1. Sign in
    2. Navigate to the Data -> Download page
    3. Make the appropriate selections of the data you wish to download
    4. Select your File
    5. Click the Download button

    All downloads are comma-separated value files (.csv), with appropriate headers.