Biological Features of Sturgeon in Breeding Process in Pond Fish Farms of Almaty Region

The purpose of this article is to investigate the optimal environment for (chemical and physical properties of water, feeding type), and biological indicators (growth, development and sustainability) of, sturgeon breeding in pond adopted to natural environmental conditions. The research resulted in data on productive (vital capacity) and biological indicators (weight, length, maximum, nominal and daily average growth of biomass) of four species of sturgeon: Russian sturgeon (Acipenser gueldenstaedtii), Siberian sturgeon (Acipenser baerii Brandt), stellate sturgeon (Acipenser stellatus Pallas), and paddlefish (Polyodon spathula Walbaum). The water analysis has shown the following physical and chemical parameters of water in the reservoirs: pH – 3.8-6.6, total hardness – 2.8-4.8 mg-equ/dm3. This research shows that the highest rates of daily average growth for the five-month period had the paddlefish fry (24.44 g), Russian (22.13 g) and Siberian sturgeon fry (19.28 g). Final weighting shown that paddlefish fry had the best indicators among all studied species (m=1.8 kg). The coefficient of variation (Cv > 7) indicates high phenotypic variation in all studied species of sturgeon. Ichtyopathological study of experiments revealed that none of stellate sturgeon, Russian and Siberian sturgeon and paddlefish were infected. As it was revealed, feed with higher protein (56% relative to 50 %) causes greater increase in weight (+0.2 kg). Obtained results show that paddlefish and stellate sturgeon have the best parameters for breeding in ponds. Research results can be applied for sturgeon breeding in ponds with similar chemical and physical properties.