Chinese Sturgeon（Acipenser sinensis）
Habitat: Chinese sturgeon is a kind of migration or semi-migration
fish that grows up in coastal waters and enters into rivers after sexual maturity.
Feeding habits: It mainly feeds on the larva of insects, mollush,
oligochaeta and fishes etc.
Features: The fish is fusiformis-shaped, with long and pear-like
rhynchodaenm, the bottom part of which is thick and fat, while sharp-pointed and a bit
curling upwards on the tip. The mouth of the fish, stretching out and drawing back freely,
is small and growing on the side of its head like a gap. In the middle of its
rhynchodaenm, the Chinese sturgeon has two loasomes of the same length in a row. The fish
has no scales and has only five rows of hard and vertical bone lamellas. The row grown on
its back is the biggest, which looks like the shields of ancient warriors. The fish has a
heterocercal tail, which is well developed in the upper part. The Chinese sturgeon is big
in size, more often than not, one such fish grows as large as 300-500 kilograms. Chinese
sturgeon is no doubt the giant in all fishes. The matured Chinese sturgeons migrate to the
upstream of the Jinsha River to spawn in October or November of each year and they spawn
in places where the riverbed is steep and there is rushing current. The eggs it spawns are
big and demersal, which would stick to the marbles until young sturgeons are hatched.
Chinese sturgeon is late in sexual maturity and the period of its maturity usually takes
as long as 11 to 14 years. It has about half a million to one million eggs at one time,
but only one percent of its offspring could survive because of all reasons. Therefore,
Chinese sturgeon becomes even more precious for its sheer scarcity. Chinese sturgeon grows
very big and enjoys very long life. Its flesh is fresh and tasty, thus it is regarded as
one of the major large-sized economy fish. Particularly, the eggs of the Chinese Sturgeon,
after due processing, can become an especially precious food, because of this reason, the
resource of Chinese sturgeon has suffered great losses.
Category: Pisces, Acipenseriformes, Acipenseridae
Distribution: it's the acipenseridae that distributes in the farthest
South in the world. It is found in the Yangzi River, Zhujiang River, Minjiang River,
Qiantangjiang River and the Yellow River. At the present, it is distinct in most rivers
and only a certain amount is left in the Yangzi River.
Protection: class I state protection animal and is also listed in
Appendix II of IUCH (1996)EN.CITES (1997)
 
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