Experimental trials of acclimatization of juvenile Persian sturgeon, Acipenser persicus to different salinites of 0,5,10, 15ppt were studied. The juvenile Persian sturgeons in three weight classes (1.5, 3, 5g) have been  transfered from freshwater to different concentrations of saline water.  Na+, k+, Cl- concentrations of blood serum and the changes in the number and size o...

Many hydroelectric dams have been in place for 50 - >100 years, which for most fish species means that enough generations have passed for fragmentation induced divergence to have accumulated. However, for long-lived species such as Lake Sturgeon, Acipenser fulvescens, it should be possible to discriminate between historical population structuring and contemporary gene flow and improve the broad...

Veronaea botryosa is a melanized mold and cause of systemic fungal infections in cultured sturgeon (Acipenser spp.). Mortality in adult female sturgeon caused by this emergent pathogen results in significant economic losses for the caviar industry. Little is known regarding environmental conditions conducive to V. botryosa infection. This study evaluated the effect of temperature on V. botryosa...

The sturgeon is a primitive actinopterigian fish that, unlike modern teleosts, possess a portal vascular system that connects a true median eminence with the anterior pituitary as in mammals. The occurrence and localization of corticotropin and corticotropin releasing factor-like immunoreactivies were examined in the brain of the sturgeon (Acipenser ruthenus L.) by immunocytochemistry with anti...

CO(2) tolerance in white sturgeon is associated with the ability to tightly regulate intracellular pH (pHi) despite a large reduction in extracellular pH (pHe) termed preferential pHi regulation. How this regulatory response affects whole animal metabolic rate is unknown. Accordingly, we characterized oxygen consumption rate ( [Formula: see text] ) and metabolically-relevant organismal and cell...

Approximately 8 weeks after a chlorine insult associated with the city water supply, shortnose sturgeon, Acipenser brevirostrum (L.), from one group presented with small (3-4 mm) irregular foci of cutaneous pallor that involved the dorsocranial integument with progressive ulceration of the nascent lesions. Various bacterial organisms were isolated from the cutaneous lesions, but not from the in...

Effects of Artemia urmiana enriched with ICES30/4 as a commercial emulsion of highly unsaturated fatty acid (HUFA) on growth, survival, salinity tolerance and fatty acid composition of the Persian sturgeon larvae were evaluated. Artemia enriched for two different time periods (12 and 24 hours) and non-enriched artemia were fed to A. persicus larvae (average initial wet weight 46.80± 2.03mg) dur...

Motility of spermatozoa was studied on 12 and 7 specimens of Acipenser persicus and A. stellatus, respectively. The density measured to be 2.22±0.65x109ml-1 in A. persicus and 2.21±0.55x109ml-1 in A. stellatus. Semen samples were diluted with two extenders containing tris 118mM, sucrose 23.4mM, pH=8, egg yolk (20%), dimethyl sulfoxide (15%) and penicillin potassium (500IU/ml) and biociphus exte...

Sturgeon aquaculture is an emerging worldwide industry both for human consumption as well conservation. Several transmissible diseases limit this including mycosis by dematiaceous fungi such Veronaea botryosa . This study reports the first diagnosis of phaeohyphomycosis in a beluga sturgeon ( Huso huso ) Italy.