Sturgeon
The sturgeon originally comes from Eastern Europe, including Russia, Romania, and Hungary. In the wild a sturgeon may reach as many as 18 feet with a weight of 400 kilograms and can live up to 100 years! It is a beautiful fish which has an almost prehistoric appearance, though that may be due to them belonging to the second most primitive group of ray-finned fish and not really changing much in their evolution since the Jurassic era.
While sturgeons used to be found in all large rivers, they now have nearly disappeared except for a few small populations. With up to 85% of their species overfished most are classed as critically endangered.
Most commonly found in stores is the Siberian Sturgeon (Acipenser baerii), also known as the Long nose Sturgeon. In the wild these fish inhabit the northern rivers of Siberia, often found in the deeper parts of the river. In garden ponds they can reach 6ft, though tend to max out at 4ft.
If a smaller sturgeon is what you are after, then Sterlets are always an option. These grow to around 2ft in ponds, though can reach up to 3ft. These can be found instore in two different colours, albino and dark grey.
By nature, a sturgeon is a strong fish which will not easily fall ill. However, it is a fish which may grow very big in a pond. A pond should therefore have a minimum depth of 3ft everywhere and it should contain very few plants. Assume that per sturgeon you have 1,000 litres of water in your pond. Moreover, you absolutely need a powerful filter because a sturgeon likes a strong current.
Unlike what many people believe sturgeons WILL NOT clean the bottom of your pond or eat algae, they require a large amount of animal protein within their diet and so have no interest in cleaning up algae for you.
Items necessary for a sturgeon
If you want to keep sturgeons in your pond, there are a number of necessary items to bear in mind.
FOOD - A sturgeon needs special sinking food designed for sturgeons, because its mouth is at the underside, and it needs large amounts of protein and oil it its diet. The feed will sink to the bottom and has a very strong odour, so that it looks like its natural feed. They will also need the be fed all year round.
AIR PUMP - A sturgeon is a bottom inhabitant, used to living in cold fast flowing rivers and very oxygen rich water. A sturgeon does not have sufficient possibilities to pump water round with its gills and will consequently have to swim constantly, just like a shark, in order to breathe in enough oxygen. This implies that good aeration and room in the pond are therefore indispensable.
A sturgeon can’t swim backwards. In a pond with plants or filamentous algae a sturgeon will soon be stuck while swimming and it will drown. Especially smaller specimens who are not strong enough to swim off may lose their lives just from a little piece of filamentous algae.
Care of the sturgeon
Do you want to have a sturgeon and a koi in one pond? You should bear in mind that a koi will often find the sturgeon food sooner than the sturgeon itself. Young sturgeons often die of starvation this way. It will help if you feed fish every day at the same time and place. In this way you train fish to find out where their feed is. If you divert your koi on the opposite side of the pond, the sturgeon will have some more time. Sturgeon feed has a different composition than koi feed. It is far richer and in winter it is not suitable to feed koi on. A better solution is to distribute sturgeons sinking koi feed.
The bottom of the pond should stay clean. Accumulating dirt may cause gasification, as a result sturgeons can fall ill and die. This is caused by the fact that the bacteria consume all oxygen in the water.
Strong treatments (such as potassium permanganate or formaldehyde) should be avoided or used with caution as they will strip oxygen from the water column and cause death.
Summer can also be dangerous for sturgeon. Warm water does not hold as much oxygen as cold water, so always ensure you have a large air pump running. A waterfall or blade will NOT supply enough oxygen to the pond by itself, an air pump with still be necessary.
