STURGEON MATURITY

The poor state of natural sturgeon stocks in the Caspian and Azov basins has significantly complicated the provision of sturgeon fish hatcheries with producers in recent years. A radical solution to this problem may be the formation of broodstocks of this species in artificial conditions. The results of this work show that it is possible to grow sexually mature Russian sturgeons in a very short period of time. In the conditions of an experimental industrial fish hatchery, the first female Russian sturgeon matured at the age of five years, and mass maturation of females occurred at 6-7 years (more than half of the fish). Such periods of sexual maturity are significantly shorter than those of fish of this species in natural reservoirs. The interspawning interval for female Russian sturgeon in the conditions of the hatchery lasts more than one year (many individuals of the Siberian sturgeon mature annually). In terms of the amount of caviar obtained from one female during one spawning tour, the Russian sturgeon exceeds the Siberian sturgeon by 2-3 times, which is partly explained by its larger size. The quality of Russian sturgeon caviar in the workshop conditions turned out to be significantly higher than that of Siberian sturgeon. Clutches with zero percent fertilization and with caviar that stops developing at early stages are extremely rare. These data indicate the prospects for the formation of Russian sturgeon broodstocks in fish farms.