Sturgeon :) checking up on success

[BIG_ONE]

Naw man, I remember when we got these guys in and they were 3" long.

How positive are you?...its okay to say that you had the wrong info.
Because being a sturgeon fisherman and gathering information from the Department of Fish and Game here in California often. It takes about 15 years for a sturgeon to actually to be mature enough to breed and that is just over 4ft range(one reason why its really rare to catch a sturgeon under 4ft when they are traveling up the rivers to spawn). And at 6 years, they are like a kid only. A fish that lives up to 150 years and is capable to breed at 6 years old?

But with the sturgeon feeding thing, if your talking about a white sturgeon. I prefer feeding it its natural food in the wild which you can find at most bait shop(should be diseased free as it is regulated by state law to have every bait farmed and disease free).
Threadfin shad, salmon roe, night crawlers, grass shrimp, pile worms, clams etc etc etc...

 

[I<3fish]

How positive are you?...its okay to say that you had the wrong info.
Because being a sturgeon fisherman and gathering information from the Department of Fish and Game here in California often. It takes about 15 years for a sturgeon to actually to be mature enough to breed and that is just over 4ft range(one reason why its really rare to catch a sturgeon under 4ft when they are traveling up the rivers to spawn). And at 6 years, they are like a kid only. A fish that lives up to 150 years and is capable to breed at 6 years old?

But with the sturgeon feeding thing, if your talking about a white sturgeon. I prefer feeding it its natural food in the wild which you can find at most bait shop(should be diseased free as it is regulated by state law to have every bait farmed and disease free).
Threadfin shad, salmon roe, night crawlers, grass shrimp, pile worms, clams etc etc etc...

I'm as positive as me seeing them put in the 30k gallon aquarium as babies... And then 7 years later, here they are, as massive as ever.

 

[BIG_ONE]

I'm as positive as me seeing them put in the 30k gallon aquarium as babies... And then 7 years later, here they are, as massive as ever.

Interesting...so at 7 years and its 6ft long from 3". So in about another 10 years then it'll be in the double digit in lenght. LOL. Someone must been swapping out the fish. Or maybe someone is LOL jk haha.

Here use this, its not 100% accurate but I'd say this chart is about 95% on accurate on AVERAGE.

http://www.coastangler.com/fishing/sturgeon_weight_estimator.shtml

 

[Noto]

A well-fed fish in a tank with a constant temperature is going to grow more quickly than a wild fish, there's nothing surprising about that.

 

[BIG_ONE]

A well-fed fish in a tank with a constant temperature is going to grow more quickly than a wild fish, there's nothing surprising about that.

Correct but not really. There's a point where the hormones let them grow to a certain size at certain age. Sure they may grow bigger...but bigger as in weight. In the wild here, they have tons of food. Every sturgeon I catch and take home always have crawdad, clams, and sometimes pieces of dead fish. And as the theory has been tested, the wider space they have to swim around or move around, the faster they grow. To my knowledge, fish tend to grow bigger and faster with unlimited space and average feeding than a fish with limited space with tons of food.

It's same situation with human...although not necessarily true but with the food point of view. Do you get taller the more you eat?...I wish that works.

 

[Noto]

Sure you do, to a point. Modern citizens of industrialized countries are on average taller than their ancestors of a couple of generations back; that's not genetics, just diet.

The effect of tank size on fish is a little more complicated than that; stress due to confinement and poor water quality limit growth, not tank size in itself. There have been some experiments done with trout fingerlings raised in tubes with a constant food supply and continuous flow-through of clean water; the fish grew rapidly until they got big enough to block the tubes. The sturgeon in question were put into a 30,000 gallon tank with (presumably) high water quality, so confinement stress and nitrate buildup were probably not issues.

You also must consider the effects of temperature on growth. Fish are cold-blooded, so they are more active, better at getting food, and better at metabolizing that food within a particular temperature range. In the wild they spend much of their time outside that temperature range; in captivity the temperature is more constant so they are likely to be near their ideal metabolic performance all the time.

There are also other confounding factors in the wild. Fish may not have access to high quality food at all times. They may have to expend more energy to get their food. They may also expend energy evading predators, traveling to different areas (especially in migratory species like sturgeon) and so on. All that food being burned for energy is food not being turned into fish flesh.

 

[MultispeciesTamer]

I think in this case a wild sturgeon will gow faster no mater how you feed them you just cant replicate that diet of wild high protein trout.

 

[Noto]

Who told you sturgeon feed on trout? I'm sure they nab a dead or dying one now and again, but they are not relying on trout as a dietary mainstay.

Every sturgeon I catch and take home always have crawdad, clams, and sometimes pieces of dead fish.

That's typical sturgeon fare.

 

[grmanrocks]

very interesting dialouge....i have never had the pleasure of angling for these fish (although i would love to get the chance, i am an avid angler myself having fished quasi professionally on the kayak angling circuit), but the diets you mention make sense. These are bottom dwelling monsters, starting their lives in highly oxygenated streams and rivers where micro aquatic live is far more abundand than larger forms of life.

from what i observe in captivity these fish are not the most skilled of eaters, nearly missing 2/3rds of intended prey items (immobile prey items at that). it would seem from this observation that they rely on sheer quantity and quality of food in their habitats in order to survive. this is supported by thier relativly small stomach to appetite ratio. my fish seem to be stuffed after only a few bites, but then are ready to eat moments afterward. thats why i offer foods as often as i do.

as for growth, having raised my share of fast growing monsters, id imagine this fish will reach 12"s within the first 5 months, and probably 2-2.5 feet within the first 24-30 months.

my reasoning lies in that my fish have trippled in size in just under a month. i belive this is due to the higher metabolism induced by considerably higher water temperatures.....i may be wrong, but thats just what i gather.

so the fish in question may have reached that size quicker than its wild counterparts, but then again, it may be a different larger fish.....

i appreciate the discussion, i just hope we can keep it civil (as it is now)

 

[MultispeciesTamer]

Who told you sturgeon feed on trout? I'm sure they nab a dead or dying one now and again, but they are not relying on trout as a dietary mainstay.

That's typical sturgeon fare.

maybe not all sturgeon, but landlocked white sturgeon do feed on trout. The main fishing bait to catch them is fresh trout. But I am sure they get lots of other bottom dwelling things that are good for fast growth like crayfish, etc.