Lake sturgeon
Acipenser fulvescens
Water parameters
Minimum tank: 5000 L per individual at harvest size.
Feed and growth
- Feed protein
- 45% target
- Daily feed (warm)
- 0.80% of body weight
- Daily feed (cool)
- 0.40% of body weight
- Max density
- 30 g per litre
A 25000 g adult eats about 200.0 g of feed per day at optimum. 10 fish at adult size: ~2000 g daily.
Legality
Rules vary by jurisdiction and change over time. Verify with your local fisheries or wildlife authority before stocking.
| Jurisdiction | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Worldwide | restricted | CITES Appendix II; international trade requires permits verified 2026-05-13 |
| California | prohibited | verified 2026-05-13 |
| Michigan | permit required | Native species; aquaculture requires state and federal permits verified 2026-05-13 |
| European Union (bloc) | permit required | verified 2026-05-13 |
Unlisted jurisdictions default to "check local regulations".
Origin and habitat
Acipenser fulvescens is a large, ancient fish of central and eastern North America, living in big rivers and lakes of the St. Lawrence, Great Lakes, Hudson Bay, and Mississippi drainages, with an isolated southern population in the Mobile basin of Alabama and Georgia. It is among the largest freshwater fish on the continent, reaching about 2 metres and well over 100 kg, though the very largest North American freshwater fish is the Pacific white sturgeon. Lake sturgeon are extraordinarily long-lived, commonly fifty to a hundred years and occasionally to about 150. Like all sturgeon they are living relics, in a family more than 200 million years old, with a shark-like tail, rows of bony scutes in place of scales, four barbels, and a protrusible, toothless ventral mouth for vacuuming invertebrates off the bottom. Overfishing, dams, and habitat loss have badly depleted wild stocks, and the fish is listed as threatened or endangered by many states, though not federally, and is on CITES Appendix II along with all sturgeon. Aquaculture interest centers on caviar, the most valuable product in the trade.
Climate and outdoor ponds
- Climate
- cold-water (cool water required, dies in heat)
- USDA zones
- 2–7 (winter low around -46°C or warmer)
- Heating needed
- no
- Cooling needed
- yes, if summer water exceeds upper tolerance
Care notes
A specialty fish for large, long-horizon operations, not a fit for ordinary aquaponics. Lake sturgeon grow slowly and mature very late: wild females are not ready to produce roe until around twenty years, males at roughly eight to fifteen, though farm conditions speed this up. Waiting two decades for the primary product, caviar, makes no sense for home or small systems. Even for meat, fish are grown several years to a few kilograms before harvest, longer than most aquaponics keepers will manage. They want cool water, best around 16–19°C within a tolerated 10–24°C, with dissolved oxygen above 5 mg/L. They feed on a sinking pellet of 40 to 45 percent protein, with live or frozen invertebrates for juveniles, at a feed conversion of about 1.5 to 2.5 and modest stocking, 10 to 20 g/L for juveniles and lower for adults. The species is protected in many states and needs permits to culture, and fingerlings come mostly from hatcheries tied to conservation restocking. The economics work only at commercial scale on a fifteen-to-twenty-five-year caviar plan, where domestic sturgeon caviar fetches roughly $500 to $2,000 per kilogram. Not recommended for aquaponics.