مشخصات پژوهش

The Persian sturgeon, Acipenser persicus, is an anadromous fish and native to the southern Caspian Sea. This species spawns in the Sefidroud and Gorganrud rivers in Iran and the Kura River in Azerbaijan, entering these rivers in stage IV of sexual maturity (Vlasenko et al., 1989). Holc?ik (1989) reported their migration to the Kura and Volga rivers to the north of the Caspian Sea basin. In the culture of most marine and fresh water larval fish, including sturgeon, live food at first feeding is the most widely used practice. Wild zooplankton, the natural prey source for these early larval stages, are difficult to culture on a large scale and dependence on their collection from the wild is difficult and would limit production. Because of these factors, oligochaetes (Enchytraeus and Tubifex) and brine shrimp nauplii Artemia spp. have been adopted as the live food of choice in almost every sturgeon larval feeding strategy (Charlon and Williot, 1978; Noori et al., 2011a,b).