Sturgeon Re-introduction program at TNACI by Claire C.

Tasty bloodworm lunch

Today, we took a trip to the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute (TNACI) propagation facility to observe how they breed and care for the sturgeon. Sturgeon are a type of bony fish indigenous to the Tennessee River, but have been overfished for caviar and blocked from their natural breeding grounds by dams or other industrial works. This caused the population to decrease significantly. TNACI, as well as many others, have noticed this problem and are attempting to resolve it by spawning the sturgeon in captivity, which can increase the survival rate of the developing fries.

To do this, they pump in city water rather than using a flow-through system and de-chlorinate it before filling the tanks. There are about 5-6 tanks, which separate the sturgeon based on size. The reason behind this is to ensure that the bigger and smarter fish will not deprive the smaller ones of food. Typically, the smaller ones would never make it in the wild due to their size and intelligence.

For a balanced diet, the young sturgeon are fed a healthy dose of bloodworms. They're benthic feeders, meaning that they eat their food off the bottom of the tank, which can potentially increase the growth of bacteria. We got rid of this by thoroughly scrubbing the inside of the tank, but not without accidentally hitting a few fish!

 

Scrubbing the tank 

            If the population levels are brought back up to their historic levels, then it would positively affect the environment and economy because the sturgeon could help balance out the river's ecosystem and again be fished as a food source.