sturgeons

Sturgeon have a tactiele organ called barbel that dangles down from there nose. With those barbels they are capable to locate small living animale like worms, snails, insect larvae, fish eggs and clams. Sturgeons can be very large and also become very old, they grow slowly. Sturgeons become activ if the water is cold and rich on oxygen. They need clear streaming water, free of pollution.

Sturgeons in an aquarium in Moscow. Sturgeon are slow moving fishes that are very stiff and can only swimm forward.

Sturgeon, an illustration by Hashime Murayama.

Acipenser fulvescens or the lake sturgeon.
Lake sturgeons never visit salty water. They merely live in rivers like the Mississippi and the Great Lakes. Fishery and the building of dams and the pollution caused by agriculture and industry reduced there numbers until they were a threatened species to be endangered. An illustration by Hashime Murayama

Hashime Murayama
Hashime Murayama was a Japanse illustrator,
born in 1879. He used to work for
National Geographic until 1941: Here he
produced many beautiful illustrations.
On this website you can see:
mosquito
skipjack
man of war
sturgeon, caviar
rockpool

The larvae of the sturgeon are bad swimmers and get easely entangled in weed. Sturgeons only produce offspring in salted water , so never in a pond.
1 larva just born.
2 larva aftr two days na 2 dagen
3 larva after 4 days
4 larva after one month.
5 one year old.
a anus
b barbel
h heart.

Beluga sturgeon

The Beluga or European sturgeon lives around the Black sea. The Beluga has many white spots (beluga is "white" in Russian). This large fish is heavily hunted for the female's beluga caviar. The Beluga numbers have been greatly reduced by overfishing, prompting many governments to enact restrictions on its trade. The meat has a bad taste. But its caviar is priced as the best. There has been a stop on fishing on the Beluga sturgeon in Roemenia (2006), followed by Bulgaria in 2011. Italy is by far the world's largest producer and exporter of farmed caviar, Iran is a primary center of the sturgeon-fishing industry and the world's largest exporter of caviar.
Beluga caviar

The roe of the female Beluga is called caviar, that can be eaten fresh or pasteurized. Pasteurized caviar has no particulair taste. The endangered status of the Beleuga sturgeon has made its caviar very expensive. Fresh caviar is also extremely perishable.
Beluga caviar imitation

Fresh cod roe is eaten in the Baltic lands as an imitation caviar, That is mainly eaten in Sweden ("sm�rg�skaviar"). American paddlefish are catched illegally in the Mississipi river. The eggs are exported from the US, relabelled as beluga caviar and then reimported.

Harder (1858-1935)

Heinrich Harder is known as a book illustrator and a painter.
He was specialized in prehistric animals and fishes. Some well-known books are illustrated by him:
Die Wunder der Urwelt 1912
Unsere S�sswasserfische 1913
Tierwanderungen in der Urwelt 1914
sturgeon, caviar
sealillies

In Moskou diamand or Russian sturgeon is sold in pieces of 5 kilo each. The diamant sturgeon can become extremely large: up to more then 500 kilogram. This sturgeon has three white bones on its back. It is not possible to keep this sturgeon in a pond: they become much too large, to long, and need streaming and oxygen rich clear water. The diamond sturgeon can be found in the Black sea and Caspian sea. They swimm in the large russian rivers of Wolga and Ural. Some diamond sturgeon can be found in small populations in the Danube river.
sturgeon in a pond
Sturgeon become large, much to large for a pond. They need fresh streaming water. They pond must be at least 10 times larger then the length of the sturgeon. Only the scarlet sturgeon is capable to survive in a pond. These are intelligent fishes that easely recognize there boss and eat food from the hand.

footer

home

contact