Part 2. ARTIFICIAL PROPAGATION OF STURGEON IN RUSSIA. 



By Nicolas A. Bokodin, 

 Formerly Chief Specialist in Fish Culture, Russian Department of Agriculture. 



Every fish-culturist knows how difficult it has been to secnro any 

 genuine success in the artificial propagation of any species of stur- 

 geon of the genus Acipenser. There must be acknowledged almost 

 complete failure in both America and Europe as far as practical re- 

 sults go. One drawback has been the dirficulty of keeping sturgeon 

 eggs alive and sound, owing to their liability to be attacked and 

 killed by Saprolegnia and other kinds of fungus. Yet another and 

 very serious matter has been the scarcity of sturgeon in the rivers 

 and lakes; in fact, these fish in many waters have become practically 

 exterminated, and there has been no possibility of securing ripe eggs. 



T\Tiile America and western Europe have lost most of their stur- 

 geon supplies, Russia still remains rich in sturgeons, especially the 

 rivers emptying into the Caspian Sea — the Volga, the Kura, and the 

 Ural. Even in these waters, however, there has occurred positive 

 diminution in the number of sturgeon, and it is the general belief 

 that, in order to prevent the entire extermination of these fish, it is 

 quite necessary to resort to artificial propagation on a large scale. 



Just prior to the outbreak of the war the central administration 

 of the fisheries in Russia received a special appropriation for stur- 

 geon propagation. Three of the commercial species were selected for 

 attention, namely, Acipenser rufhenus, a small fish living in the Volga ; 

 and A. guldens faclti, a Russian sturgeon, and A. stellatui^, or starry 

 sturgeon, both living in the Caspian Sea and ascending the Volga, 

 Kura, and Ural Rivers in spring. Temporary stations for the propa- 

 gation of A. ruthemis were established and operated in the Volga in 



1913, 1914, and 1915; one station for the propagation of .4. gulden- 

 stadti was erected on the Ural in 1915, and another on the Kura in 



1914, for handling both the starry and the Russian sturgeons. 

 There are not at hand the exact data on the work accomplished as 



regards the number of eggs hatched and fry planted, but the figures 

 for A. ruthenus run into tens of thousands and for .4. stellafus and A. 

 guldeiistadti into several hundreds of thousands. Most of the fry 

 were planted several days after hatching, but a considerable number 

 of fry of the Russian sturgeon were reared for several months, and 

 some specimens were carried in an aquarium for five or six months, 

 until they became too large for their quarters. 



There have been some interesting developments in sturgeon propa- 

 gation in Russia in the past few years, and I will try to describe the 

 methods employed. 

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