Frequently asked Questions
and Sturgeon Information

By Graham Quick & Terry White

I hope this covers most of your questions.

Q: How can I get my sturgeon to feed?
A: A very common question. If your sturgeon stops feeding, it is very difficult to get it to start again.
Try the following steps:

• If there are a lot of other fish it may be better to separate the sturgeon, as they are not competitive for food.
• Try feeding bloodworm or tubliflex worms; these can be purchased frozen from tropical fish shops.
• Once the sturgeon is feeding well, add pellet food to the worms to take on the flavour, this will encourage the fish to eat pellets.
• After a week or two the sturgeon should take pellets on their own.

Q: What is the smallest pond I can put sturgeon in?
A: The smallest pond is 1000 gallons or 4500 litres but bigger is better.

Q: Why do some sturgeon bend in a to a 'U-shape' and lay on the bottom (or some times float)?
A: This is often the sign of malnutrition; as the fish starves the body breaks down the muscle tissue to supply energy to live. This leaves the fish with no muscle and eventually the fish is unable to move and death soon follows (see first question).

Q: What is the best and safest way to treat my sturgeon?
A: Salt (cooking or dish washer, NOT TABLE SALT) 0.15gm per litre of water (2oz per gallon) for a maximum of 15 minutes, in the form of a bath. This can be carried out every other day for 3 or 4 treatments and will clear/kill fungus and most skin parasites (See treatment page).

Q: Do sturgeon mix with other fish?
A: Yes, they are no problem and harmless to all but the very smallest (less than 3cm, 1½in) fish, even then they are unlikely to catch them. A word of warning; once the other pond fish have eaten the sturgeon food they will be very competitive for it. Small sturgeons are shy and will struggle to find food.

Q: Why do sturgeon die during hot weather but the other fish are survive?
A: Sturgeon require high levels of oxygen and most other fish can survive much lower levels so sturgeon will die when other fish can breathe without trouble. Always have a back up air pump to help during hot weather and to act as a back up.

Q: Why do my sturgeon swim around the pond edge at night?
A: Sturgeons normally eat shrimps and snails which hide most of the day and come out at dawn/dusk so the sturgeon swim around looking for them.

Q: Can I keep them indoors in an aquarium?
A: No! They grow too quickly.

Q: Do sturgeons require filtered ponds?
A: Yes. They require high oxygen levels and it is difficult to achieve this in a non filtered pond, as the only way is to have lots of plants but they get in the way and the sturgeon get stuck. Otherwise a large lake is OK (If you have permission).

Q: Do sturgeon keep the bottom of the pond clean?
A: No. There is no fish that will clean a pond for the following reasons; waste is called waste because it's waste! The main components of the waste are: soil (not edible) dead plant material (no food value) and old fish waste (no food value.)

Q: Do sturgeons eat plants/algae?
A: No. Sturgeons are true carnivores.

Q: Why do the other fish eat all the sturgeon food?
A: Sturgeon food is much better quality and has a higher food value i.e. more protein and oil, the other fish soon work this out. So always feed the floating food first.

Q: Why do sturgeon 'jump' or 'bob' around the edge of the pond?
A: The sturgeon are looking for food. They cannot see what they are eating so they must run over the food with their 'feelers' to taste it; this entails the strange bobbing up and down at the edge of the pond. In other words they are hungry.

Q: How fast will my sturgeon grow?
In a pond situation rough growth rates should be approximately:

• Siberian: 90cm (3ft) in 5-6 years
• Diamond: 90cm (3ft) in 4-5 years
• Albino Sterlet: 60cm (2ft) in 5-10 years
• Sterlet: 90cm (3 ft) in 8-10 years

As you can see, the rates are quite different from what I achieve but it does the fish no harm to grow slowly and in fact it produces a better fish.

Q: Why does my sturgeon lay still in the daytime?
A: Sturgeon are dusk to dawn fish and in the strong sunlight will spend most of their time laying about sleeping, only the prospect of food will draw them out normally. Albino sterlets are very lazy and often only feed early morning late evening.

Q: Sturgeon and the Cold. Will sturgeon survive our winters?
A: Names like Siberian Sturgeon and Russian Sturgeon should give it away. Cold is not a problem, they will tolerate much colder weather than we will ever get.

Feeding your Sturgeon

The most frequently asked question is about the feeding of sturgeon. This page and the Food And Feeding page should answer most of your questions. If you have any others please contact me. This may seem a little dull (sorry but fish food is not very exciting to talk about) but it does offer good advice that has worked for me, many customers and friends.

A quick note: You are what you eat!

Sturgeon like other carnivores cannot, whatever people may say, digest most plant proteins as they lack the enzymes required to break it down. Recent studies have shown that a small percentage of the required protein can be obtained from soya but it cannot replace fishmeal altogether. Therefore any sturgeon food that contains wheat or soya meal as the main ingredient is in fact no good for sturgeon. Vegetable protein is often used in fish diets as it is cheap compared to fishmeal. A small amount of wheat or soya meal will be needed to bind the food together.

Sturgeon food should have a minimum (fish based) protein content of 40% and an oil level of 15% or more. Sturgeon require between 2-3% of their body weight per day, depending on size, to grow at their correct rate.

Most fish need to feed regularly through out the day as their gut is short and has a small capacity, so a number of small feeds are better than one large feed.

Due to the slow nature of sturgeon it important that you feed the other fish in the pond first to stop them eating all of the sturgeon food. When the other fish have eaten the sinking food can be thrown in for sturgeon. Unfortunately the sinking food is more often than not better than most floating food, so the other fish will rush after it before the sturgeon have realised there is any food to eat.

Sturgeon normally live in depths where little light reaches, as you will have noticed they do not react well to sudden movement, so the need for good eye sight is not important. They mainly rely on light-dark differences not specific shapes or shades of grey. This means they are unable to see food, they must run over it with the 'feelers' that hang from their top lip to sense food, which they then pick up.

Feeding your Sturgeon in Winter

Like most fish, sturgeon reduce their food intake in colder weather as they don't use as much energy (cold blooded; no built in heater) so feeding can be reduced in quantity and frequency, but they still require food if they are active (as do all fish). In the recent mild winters it has become more important than ever to feed during the mild temperatures, otherwise the fish will waste away and die form malnutrition/starvation. Also, more importantly, the fish will become more susceptible to disease in the spring as the water warms up (the number one problem time of year for fish and their owners).

So the answer is to feed if the fish are active and only a small amount, just enough to keep them ticking over until the spring.

Just to quell any winter feeding issues

You can feed high protein in winter, as it does not rot in the fish if the temperature drops. This is true for the following reason:
Fish in the wild eat most of the year, ask any fisherman, if they died when the temperature dropped there would be no wild fish would there?

If any food becomes indigestible in cold weather it is wheat germ. The reason for this is:
Animals that eat plant protein generally use other life forms to digest it (i.e. bacteria) and they require a higher temperature in order to help the bacteria work faster, so cold weather is the opposite to what they need.

All my foods are feed trialed before they are released and many of the feed trialers use my food for their own private fish.

It is OK for the other pond fish to eat sturgeon food in the winter; it will not do them any harm. If they want to feed let them.

Pellet to Sturgeon size

• 2mm pellet Starter Diet Sturgeon 10-20cm (4-8in)
• 3mm pellet Sturgeon 20-36cm (8-14in)
• 6mm pellet Sturgeon 36-61cm (14-24in)
• 8mm pellet Sturgeon over 61cm (24in)
  except Stellatus; use 6mm until 76cm (30in)

Orchard Fisheries Sturgeon / Sterlet Food Pellets for sale. Buy online or by phone.

Also available: Koi Premium Food, Koi Premium Colour and Pond Sticks

Sturgeon Feed Testing

I am often asked why our sturgeon food is the best choice for you sturgeon. Obviously it has to be said that as I am growing the fish to increase the value (Orchard Fisheries is a business) so the most important objective is to get the best growth rate for the least cost in the quickest time. So the best food with the best growth rate is a must.

A recent test conducted (not by Orchard Fisheries) on the three main foods on sale showed how the less 'caring' food manufactures are really not even remotely interested in fish health and the most important thing is a pretty packet and a nice company car.

Sturgeons and Oxygen Levels

In the hot weather I receive many phone calls and e-mails asking why the sturgeon die at night. It is quite simple, oxygen starvation. Every summer for the last 25 years I've had people asking me why the fish die in the hot weather. Please get it sorted, it is very easy. Here are the main factors that affect the oxygen levels:

• As the temperature rises the water carries less oxygen.
• Most ponds carry around 70-80% oxygen saturation at best.
• If a pond drops to less than 6mg per litre the sturgeon will start to suffer.
• In hot heavy weather (thunder storms) the levels drop even lower.
• Any chemical treatment will lower the oxygen levels.
• Algae treatments kill the algae and the dying algae consumes oxygen causing the level to drop.
• Dirty filters use more oxygen; remove as much solid waste as possible as soon as you can.

Tip: Buy an air pump; they are so cheap now, less than the cost of one fish!

Get the oxygen levels sorted before the summer:

• By an Oxygen test kit (Tetra's is about £9.00). Ideal levels 6mg per litre or more *
• Get the air pump out the garage and check the diaphragm, replace if necessary.
• By new air stones or check old ones; if you can't blow through them neither can the air pump.
• Offer shade to the fish; it not only offers a cooler place but shelter from predators.
• Remove blanket weed as often as possible.
• If the pond temperature gets too high add cool tap water to reduce it.
• Get a spare pump in case you have a problem, even a cheap sump pump will help.
• DO NOT turn pumps off over night; this will kill the sturgeon (and other fish) very quickly.
• If the pump clogs clean it. Don't wait until the morning it could be too late.

* Please note oxygen levels change during the day so test first thing in the morning, as this will be the lowest reading.

Remember plants produce oxygen during daylight hours and use oxygen by night so a pond with a lot of blanket weed could reduce oxygen to dangerously low levels (for sturgeon anyway), so be warned!

If the weather is set to be very warm, reducing the food will reduce the oxygen demand of the fish.