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Acipenser nudiventris (Lovetzky, 1828)

Acipenser nudiventris: (click for more)

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Synonyms

	Acipenser sturio non Linnaeus, Pallas, 1814: III:91 (Volga and Dnieper rivers).
	Acipenser schypa Kessler, 1856, 1856:90.
	Acipenser shypa Eichwald, 1831:66.
	Acipenser shipa Lovetsky, 1834:260.
	Acipenser glaber Fitzinger and Heckel, 1836:270.

FAO Names

En - Fringebarbel sturgeon, Fr - Esturgeon barbillons frangés, Sp - Esturión barba de flecos.

3Alpha Code: AAN Taxonomic Code: 1170100106

Scientific Name with Original Description
Acipenser nudiventris Lovetzsky, A., 1828O rybakh, prinadlezhashchikh k rodu osetra i zhivushchikh vodoemakh Rosiiskoi imperi. Novyi magazin Estestvennoi istorii, fiziki, khmii i svedenii ekologicheskikh, izd. I. Dvigubskim, chast' 6, Moskova.

Diagnostic Features

The snout has an almost perfect conical shape. Snout and caudal peduncle subconical. Spiracle present. Gill membrane joined to isthmus. Mouth transverse and lower lip continuous, and not interrumpted in the middle. The barbels are fimbriate, halfway between tip of snout and mouth, reaching the later. 24-45 gill rakers. D:39-57. A:23-37 fin rays. 11-17 dorsal scutes. 49-74 lateral scutes (usually more than 50). 11-17 ventral scutes (in large specimens, these scutes wear away and are often almost fully lost). There are no small bony plates between the rows of scutes. The first dorsal scute is the largest and form an obtuse angle with the profil of head. Dorsum greyish green, becoming ligther on the sides. Ventral surface yellowish-white, and the fins are greyish.

Geographical Distribution

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Black, Azov, Caspian and Aral Seas, from which adults ascend the rivers to spawn (Sokolov & Vasilev, 1989). According to Birstein (1993) it is extinct in the Aral Sea. Therefore, possibly a small population of this form still exists in Lake Balkhash (Zholdasova, 1997).

Habitat and Biology

The ship sturgeon remain in shallow water, above 50 m.Where the bottom is muddy. They are more abundant in the vicinity of river mouths. Freshwater forms seem to be present (Banarescu, 1964).Juveniles prey on insect larvae (Ephemeroptera, Trichoptera, Odonata and Plecoptera), other insects, molluscs, and crustaceans. Fully-grown ship sturgeon in the Caspian feed primarily on fishes , especially gobiids and, in recent years, a basic food item in their diet has become the introduced crab Rhitropanopus harrisi, which account for as much as 70 % of the food, by weight.).
Enters rivers from March to May and in October/November, spawning from the end of April to June. Spawns at water temperatures between 12 and 17.9 ºC. Some non migratory forms, continously remains in the fresh water.

Size
Maximum of 221 cm, and weigh of 80 kg and a maximum age of 32 years.

Interest to Fisheries
Commercial. Aquaculture.

Local Names

AUSTRIA : Glattdick .

AZERBAIJAN : Ship .

BULGARIA : Ship .

FRANCE : Esturgeon à barbillons frangés .

GERMANY : Glattdick .

HUNGARY : Szintok .

POLAND : Szypr .

PORTUGAL : Esturjao-ventre-nu .

ROMANIA : Bogzar .

RUSSIAN FED. : Ship .

SPAIN : Esturión barba de flecos .

UKRAINE : Ship .

UNITED KINGDOM : Fringebarbel sturgeon .

USA : Ship sturgeon .

Bibliography

Artyukhin, E.N. & Z.G. Zarkua. - 1986. On the question of taxonomic status of the sturgeons in the Rioini River (the Black Sea bassin). Voprosy Ikhtiologii. . 26:61-67..

Banarecu, P. - 1964. Pisces-Osteichthyes. Fauna Republicii Populare Romine. Academiei Republicii Populare Romine, Bucaresti. 13. Ed. .

Bauchot, M.-L. - 1987. Poissons osseux. In: W. Fischer and M.-L. Bauchot and M. Schneider (eds). Fiches FAO d'Identification des espèces pour les besoins de la pêche (Révison 1). Méditerranée et mer Noire. Zone de pêche 37. . p. 891-1421.. Commission des Communautés Européennes and FAO, Rome.

Berg, L.S. - 1934. Acipenser gueldenstaedti persicus, a sturgeon from the south Caspian Sea. Ann. Mag. Nat. His.,Ser. 10. . 317-319..

Berg, L.S. - 1962. Freshwater fishes of the U.S.S.R. and adjacent countries. Volume 1.Israel Program for Scientific Translations Ltd, Jerusalem. 4th edition. . Russian version published 1948.

Birstein, V.J. - 1993. Sturgeons and paddlefishes: threatened fishes in need of conservation. Conserv. Biol. . 7:773-787..

Birstein, V.J. & W.J. Bemis. - 1997. How many species are there within the genus Acipenser? Environ. Biol. Fish. . 48: 157-163..

Borodin, N. - 1936. Acipenser persicus, a sturgeon from the Caspian Sea. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 9. . 20: 26-28..

Crespo, J., J. Gajate & R. Ponce. - 2001. Clasificación científica e identificación de nombres vernáculos existentes en la base de datos de seguimiento informático de recursos naturales oceánicos. Instituto Español de Oceanografia, Madrid, Spain .

Hilton-Taylor, C. - 2000. 2000 IUCN red list of threatened species. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK. . xviii + 61 p.. with 1 CD-ROM.

Reshetnikov, Y.S., N.G. Bogutskaya, E.D. Vasil'eva, E.A. Dorofeeva, A.M. Naseka, O.A. Popova, K.A. Savvaitova, V.G. Sideleva & L.I. Sokolov. - 1997. An annotated check-list of the freshwater fishes of Russia. J. Ichthyol. . 37(9): 687-736..

Sokolov, L.I. & V.P. Vasilev. - 1989. Acipenser nudiventris Lovestky, 1828. In The Freshwater Fishes of Europe.Vol.1, Part II: General Introduction to Fishes. Acipenseriformes.AULA-Verlag Wiesbaden. (Ed. J. Holcík) . 345-366..

Svetovidov, A.N. - 1984. Acipenseridae In P.J.P. Whitehead, M.-L. Bauchot, J.-C. Hureau, J. Nielsen and E. Tortonese (eds.) Fishes of the north-eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean. UNESCO, Paris. vol. 1. . :220-225..

Zholdasova, I. - 1997. Sturgeons and Aral Sea ecological catastrophe. Environm. Biol. Fis. . 48:373-380..



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