Abstract

The results of a comparative assessment of domesticated (caught in the wild and cultivated) and aquaculture (grown “from eggs”) females of Russian sturgeon in terms of weight, fecundity, duration of the interspawning interval, number of eggs in the control sample, survival rate of their offspring in the embryonic period and juveniles in the Caspian Sea have been presented. Both groups of females are similar in most of the above indicators, with the exception of the number of females producing eggs suitable for insemination, the proportion of which is much larger in the group of domesticated fish. The groups also differ in offspring survival rate, which is significantly lower in fish that have reached sexual maturity in aquaculture. With the existing methods of keeping spawners grown from eggs, as their age increases (third-fourth maturation), an increase in the survival rate of the offspring obtained from them was not noted. The high survival rate of embryos (78%) allows the use of aquaculture females for the restoration of natural populations of the Caspian sturgeon, while the main emphasis is still on domesticated fish.