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Abstract
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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).
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