Today, sturgeon caviar does not need advertising to find stable markets. This is a storehouse of useful vitamins and microelements for the human body. Its prices are consistently high, which makes it possible for entrepreneurs who breed fish to receive a constant income. We will devote this article to growing sturgeon at home.

• Where to start breeding sturgeon at home?
• Technology of fish breeding for caviar
• How to earn money faster?
• What equipment to choose for a sturgeon farm?

In general, the process of growing sturgeon requires deep knowledge of technology, good equipment, and the desire to devote most of the time to this matter. Recently, innovative technologies have been invented that make the farmer’s work easier, but their implementation requires large investments. Here the decision is made directly by the entrepreneur himself.

Where to start breeding sturgeon at home?

Since usually we are not initially talking about organizing a full-fledged sturgeon farm, one container of water is enough. The depth of such a pool is usually about 1 meter, and the diameter is from 1.5 to 2.5 meters. An entrepreneur has the opportunity to maintain such a pool independently, and about 1 ton of sturgeon can be raised in it per year. In addition to the tank itself, you need to purchase a pump, filter and compressor. They are necessary to ensure aeration and filtration in the pool. To reduce labor costs for caring for fish, you can purchase an automatic feeder. The water temperature should be maintained at +18-20 degrees.

Pools are occupied at the rate of 1 sq.m. area for 60 kg of live fish. The peculiarity of growing sturgeon at home is the difficulty in obtaining fry. For breeding purposes on a small scale they are usually purchased. Sturgeons are fed at the bottom of the reservoir. This satisfies the conditions of their nutrition in the natural environment. At first you can buy food, and over time you can learn to cook it yourself. It must contain precise proportions of proteins, fats, lysine and phosphorus. The fry that are released into the pool weigh no more than 5 grams. They grow unevenly. About 20% of the herd rapidly gain weight, due to which they subsequently “conquer” most of the food for themselves.

Such a small reservoir is suitable for growing sturgeon for sale as a fish delicacy. Sturgeon are grown until they reach 500-600 grams and are sold to wholesalers for sale or to restaurants.

Technology of fish breeding for caviar

Breeding sturgeon for caviar is a longer and more labor-intensive process. In nature, the female begins to produce eggs only at the age of 15. In conditions created by man, this occurs at 5-7 years. You will need at least six pools for growing fish for caviar. They are installed in a separate building or heated greenhouse. Sometimes a basement is adapted for these purposes. Since under natural conditions the sturgeon lives on the bottom, it does not need bright lighting at all.

Experts say that to start a business you need no more than $4,000. Many entrepreneurs are attracted to this amount of investment. But, unfortunately, not many people stay in this business. Sturgeon farming, for the purpose of breeding caviar, frightens businessmen with its long-term nature. If you start with the specified amount and develop the business yourself, then you can achieve full payback only after 10 years. But after this time, the farmer can count on 30% of the net profit from the initial costs. Another feature of the business is that black caviar produced on sturgeon farms is never prohibited by law.

How to earn money faster?

There is a practice of purchasing grown fish or adult specimens. It allows you to reduce the payback time, but also requires large investments in the acquisition of a herd. An adult fish costs about 5 thousand rubles per kilogram, and a three-year-old fish costs 1 thousand rubles. To form a herd that produces 1 ton of caviar, you will need to invest 100 million rubles. In addition, there is a danger of fish dying during transportation and no one can say for sure how it will take root in the new conditions.

What equipment to choose for a sturgeon farm?

One of the new technologies that helps organize the cultivation of sturgeon in a relatively short time is the use of RAS (recirculating water supply units). There are many varieties of such equipment. It differs in the design of the pools and their number, and is intended for growing fish on granulated feed. Typically, round pools are used. Before entering the pool, the water is purified in several stages. It creates a circular motion. The main operating principle of the installation is based on the following processes:

• Mechanical cleaning
• Biological treatment
• Temperature maintenance
• Oxygen saturation
• Disinfection.

They can be swapped or combined. A prerequisite is to place them in a heated room. Sturgeon farms using RAS are easily automated. This reduces the labor intensity of the sturgeon breeding process, but does not deprive the fish farmer of the responsibility to regularly monitor the stock.

The advantages of equipment with closed water supply installations include:

• The ability to create intensive water exchange, oxygenation and powerful filtration. Thanks to this, dense planting of fish is possible.
• Saving production space, as the pools are located quite compactly.
• Possibility of constant visual control.
• Automation of care and feeding processes.
• Eliminating the influence of unfavorable natural factors on sturgeon.
• Minimizing the causes that contribute to the occurrence of diseases in fish.
• Significant savings in water and feed, which reduces production costs.

Compliance with technology and sanitary standards on the farm allows the entrepreneur to grow an environmentally friendly product and confirm this with relevant documents.

The sturgeon breeding business is a promising area in Russia, despite the high risks and long payback period. If there is a clean reservoir and experienced fish farmers, it can be organized in open ponds. Market players claim that it is these components that are most difficult now, so they prefer to organize closed sturgeon farms.

Circulation pumps, main and backup. UV lamp for water disinfection. Heat exchangers - water heating in winter, cooling in summer. Gasoline generator in case of emergency power outage. Installation diagram.You can assemble the installation yourself if you consult with a RAS specialist. The entire installation without a generator will cost at least $4,000 if you buy the installation from the manufacturer.

Today, more than 80% of units sold are sold through intermediaries, who in turn represent themselves as manufacturers and make a markup several times higher. Look for direct manufacturers and buy installations only from them.

Growing sturgeon at home is a business idea. After launching and setting up the RAS system, the next stage will be the purchase of fry, feed and consumables. Planting material for sturgeon fry weighing 5 g is purchased, the price is 10 - 15 rubles. a piece.

Sturgeon is a bottom-dwelling fish and eats most of its food at the bottom, so the stocking density is taken from the calculation of the area of ​​the bottom of the reservoir. The optimal stocking density for fry will be 300 pcs. for every m? the bottom of the pool. For a novice entrepreneur, the best option would be to grow fish up to a weight of 500 g for restaurants.

Restaurants buy sturgeon weighing 500 g, this weight of fish is portioned, that is, from 500 gram sturgeon a cooked portion of 370 g is obtained. Typically, a restaurant purchases about 60 kg of sturgeon per month, restaurants can work by bank transfer, some pay immediately in cash. Usually delivery to restaurants is on Tuesdays and Fridays, some restaurants buy chilled sturgeon, others only live. The fish grows to a weight of 500 g in 6 - 9 months. To grow 1 ton of sturgeon in 9 months you will need to purchase: Fry - 1800 pieces. price 15 rub. thing. – 27,000 rubles. For each ton of grown sturgeon you will need 1,400 kg of feed – 70,000 rubles. Electricity costs for the entire period (including water heating in winter) will be about 30,000 rubles. Payment for water is not taken into account, since the farm is located on its own site with a clogged well. Other small expenses 50,000 rubles. The main costs of growing 1 ton of sturgeon will be about 177,000 rubles. Restaurants buy sturgeon for an average of 500 rubles. for 1 kg. Profit from each kilogram is approximately 323 rubles. From the sale of one ton of sturgeon, the profit will be about 323,000 rubles. The given calculations are approximate, they may vary depending on prices in the region, an individual calculation is required for each farm. This article discusses the cultivation of sturgeon in home conditions as a business idea, and all technology requires a thorough study of the literature on this issue.

As the farm expands and practical experience is gained in a few years, it is possible to obtain black caviar from 5-6 year old female sturgeons; with the market value of black caviar being more than $1000 per kilogram, the profit from the farm can be significant. Sturgeon farm. Growing sturgeon at home is a business idea.

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Breeding sturgeon fish at home as a business

In all centuries and all over the world, sturgeon fish is considered a delicious product with many beneficial properties, and in the culinary world, the “royal fish” is even considered a “culinary jewel.” In gourmet circles, the white meat of red fish is highly valued for its richness of taste and high content of amino acids and minerals valuable for the body.

The sale of sturgeon fish is characterized by good income and rapid growth of home business. Nowadays, the sale of sturgeon is the key to successful business promotion, rapid income and great demand.

It is worth noting that breeding sturgeon at home is a fairly simple process. The high financial profitability of this business, low capital investments and labor costs for selling the product are the main driving force behind the start of sturgeon breeding.

There are opinions that breeding sturgeon fish at home from scratch takes a lot of time, money, and is not possible for timely sale of products, which leads to spoilage of the fish and losses. First of all, I would like to note the clear advantages of breeding sturgeon at home and outline some features of this process. Fish farming takes place in local, fresh water; sturgeon meat, in addition to its taste, has a high cost (an order of magnitude more expensive than other types of fish); constant demand for sturgeon (black) caviar; sturgeon products are in demand, therefore sales are carried out through sales to restaurants, as well as through retail chains; It is worth noting the numerous offers of technologies and installations for the successful cultivation of fish at home; feed availability:

1. Feed.

Capacity and equipment for breeding sturgeon

It’s interesting, but for starters, you can use a standard plastic mini pool with a depth of 1 m and a diameter of 1.5 to 2.5 m. In such a container you can grow up to a ton of fish per year, even without the use of hired labor. Filtration must be provided in the pool , aeration, and when dirty - cleaning. Therefore, to start the sturgeon breeding process, in addition to the container, you will need a pump, filter and compressor.

If you purchase an automatic feeder, the costs will increase, but time will be freed up. When choosing a pump and compressor, pay attention to the volume that they can process according to the passport and take it with a small margin. The equipment should not operate at the maximum of its capabilities, otherwise its service life will be significantly reduced. To save money at the first stage, you can make a pool with your own hands.

Costs for containers can be halved. At first, one pool is enough. Then you can gradually expand production by adding containers for breeding sturgeon at home.

The result is a convenient modular design and your own profitable farm.

Fry and food

It is quite difficult to obtain sturgeon fry at home. Requires certain skills and specific conditions. Therefore, fry should be purchased from large fish farms that specifically breed sturgeon. It is better not to save on this line of the budget. The higher quality the fry is, the better and faster the fish will grow, which means you will make a profit faster. As for sturgeon bark, there are several nuances:

1. The food must be appropriate for the size of the fish; for small individuals this is one size, for larger fish - another, and so on. The sturgeon feeds from the bottom and looks for food using the sense of smell, so the food should be sinking in the water and smell pleasant to the fish. The food should be high-calorie, containing up to 50%, crude fat – 25%, fiber – 3%, and also contain phosphorus and lysine.

Therefore, it is best to take food specially adapted for sturgeon. Another feature: fish feed best, and therefore grow, at a temperature of 20-24 degrees Celsius. Therefore, to achieve maximum results, it is worth maintaining exactly this temperature range.

Features of the sturgeon breeding process at home

The most exciting question for a businessman is when he can make a profit. When will the fish farm begin to pay for itself? Let's see how the fry grow. Most often, 5 g of fry are taken for growing.

It is known that sturgeon individuals grow unevenly. Some of the fish can reach a weight of 500 g in just half a year. This is approximately 15% of the total weight. Individuals weighing 500 grams and above are the most marketable product. It can be sold through restaurants and supermarkets, as well as put on the market.

Sturgeon consumption is usually not high, but it is still in short supply due to low market saturation. That is why breeding sturgeon at home is considered very profitable. After a large sturgeon has grown, the rest need three months more time.

At the same time, after 1.5 months, the average individuals grow up, and then the weaker ones. As a result, after 9 months, sturgeon production can be repeated. If the process is successful and profitable, you can increase production by adding new modules for breeding. Let us recall the main activities during breeding:

• regular feeding; cleaning containers from bottom sediments; checking the condition of the water and adding fresh water to replace evaporated water.

As a room for breeding sturgeon at home, you can use not only an apartment or a residential building, but even a greenhouse. The most important thing is that it is heated.

Today, no one is surprised by this type of business, such as breeding ornamental fish for aquariums. But many people don’t even realize that you can create a real fish farm at home. Don't be surprised, as this is quite feasible.

The most ideal option is sturgeon breeding. In addition to delicious fish, there will also be high quality caviar on the table. In addition, it is she who is a real symbol of prosperity.

So, where to start growing sturgeon?

Business benefits

Sturgeon include not only Siberian and Russian sturgeon, but also sterlet, beluga, and stellate sturgeon. If you decide to start your own business in this area, then don’t worry - it’s not as difficult as it might seem at first glance.

You can implement your plans even in your own apartment. This is precisely the first advantage of this type of activity. Among the other advantages, it is worth highlighting the following:

1. Caviar and fish meat are very valuable food products on the market. The demand for such goods is growing daily. Sturgeon is a family whose representatives can easily tolerate any temperature changes and are not demanding in terms of keeping conditions. In order for the fish to receive enough nutrition, no special knowledge or large financial expenditures are required. To start a business, you need a small start-up capital.

As you can see, breeding sturgeon at home as a business has many advantages.

Where is the best place to raise fish?

You can breed sturgeon both in a city apartment and in a country house. This will not in any way affect the quality of the final product, of course, if you do everything correctly.

In order for sturgeon breeding at home to proceed without problems, you should prepare a room with an area of ​​30 m2. It should be spacious and free. The room where you will raise fish should be well heated. This is especially true in winter.

At this time of year, sturgeon need to create normal conditions for normal growth. The water temperature should not fall below 17°C, and in warm weather this figure should be 20-24°C. If you don’t have such a room, then don’t rush to get upset.

To grow sturgeon, you can use polycarbonate greenhouses. They can accommodate a swimming pool and heating equipment.

Where will the fry live?

You can purchase all the necessary equipment from the manufacturer. However, keep in mind that this may cost you quite a bit of money. But the equipment will be completely ready for use. In addition, it will be installed by specialists.

If breeding sturgeon at home is a kind of income-generating hobby, then you can go a slightly different route. You can make equipment for growing fish yourself. After all, sturgeons can reproduce well and live in non-specialized containers.

To make the equipment, you will need a small plastic pool with a depth of no more than one meter and a diameter of 2 to 3 meters. If the area of ​​the room allows, then you can use a larger container.

In such a pool you can grow about a ton of fish per year. In this case, you will do everything yourself. This will save on hiring employees and additional costs.

How to equip a pool

Growing sturgeon at home is not such a difficult matter. If you approach the arrangement of a swimming pool correctly, such a business will generate decent income. Aeration, special filters and compressors must be installed in the pool.

You will also need a pump. After all, the pool will need to be cleaned. For sturgeon breeding to be successful, it is necessary to install an automatic feeder. Of course, you can do without this.

However, the main advantage of such equipment is that you can free yourself a little time. If you decide to save money, then you will have to feed the fish manually. You should choose a pump and compressor carefully.

Please pay special attention to the fact that such equipment should not produce its full maximum during operation. Before purchasing, calculate how much power you will need. Based on this, choose your equipment.

Otherwise, all equipment will become unusable very quickly, and it will have to be replaced with a new one.

We buy fry

Sturgeon breeding begins with the acquisition of fry. Recently, a lot of fish farms have appeared that are engaged in growing various types of fish. You can buy fry there. However, you should not buy the first ones you see.

The sturgeon family is quite large. This allows you to purchase a type of fish that will be easy to care for. The opinion of experts will also be useful. They will tell you how to distinguish low-quality fry.

The purchase of young animals should be approached with all responsibility. After all, the success of your enterprise depends on it. Remember that poor quality fry will grow slowly.

It is possible that they will get sick often.

Choosing the right food

Breeding sturgeon at home is a simple process if you follow all the rules. The choice of food requires special attention. There are several features in this issue. Remember that sturgeon representatives feed exclusively from the bottom.

Therefore, buy only food that sinks in water and does not float on the surface. It is also worth considering the fact that sturgeon have a well-developed sense of smell. It is this feeling that guides them when choosing food.

Therefore, the product you are going to feed the fish must have a pleasant aroma for them. The food should not be destroyed by water. This is another rule that must be observed, since sturgeons do not swallow food whole, but absorb it gradually.

The food must withstand exposure to moisture for at least 30 minutes. Breeding sturgeon at home may seem quite difficult for many. But actually it is not.

The food for this type of fish should be soft, so the sturgeon will eat it faster. If you want the fry to quickly turn into big fish, then their food should not only be tasty, but also high in calories. When choosing food, consider the size of the sturgeon.

If the fish are small, then the pieces of food should be small.

Composition of feed for sturgeon

The food for these fish can be completely different. But experts recommend using products that contain phosphorus, lysine, fats, protein, and fiber. This is the most useful food for sturgeon.

How to breed fish in a pond

Growing sturgeon in a private house or apartment has some disadvantages. For example, limited area, maintaining a certain temperature regime, etc. It is much easier to raise fish in a pond.

You can use a ready-made pond. If there is no such thing, then you will have to create it. The old pond must be cleaned before the fry are released.

If you create a reservoir yourself, then you should carry out liming. To do this, place a small layer of lime on the bottom, and then pour in enough water and rinse.

A similar procedure should be carried out about a few weeks before the fry are released. It is better to make the bottom of the pond in the shape of a bowl. Of course, we should not forget about the corresponding fauna and flora. The pond should contain worms, a variety of green fertilizers, reeds, and algae.

If you wish, you can place shellfish in the pond. Ordinary insects, which will serve as additional food, will also be useful. It is better to release fry into the pond in the summer.

Finally

As you can see, breeding sturgeon in a pond is a profitable business. You do not need to occupy a separate room or buy expensive equipment. The only thing required is to choose the right food.

In general, sturgeon farming brings good income.

Features of the sturgeon business

When considering whether to start doing this particular business, you need to take into account that breeding sturgeon at home has a number of features:

1. High demand for fish products and a wide area for the sale of sturgeon (restaurants, specialized fish stores, hypermarkets, pet stores, etc.). Relatively low competition(not everyone will engage in this business, and many simply have not heard of this type of activity). Does not require fabulous investments. To start a business, a novice fish farmer-entrepreneur will not need a large amount of money at all. It is not necessary to have special knowledge on the topic. Start farming sturgeon It is possible with a minimum of knowledge about fish. Everything comes with experience, as well as from numerous literature and the Internet. Business does not take much time. Daily sturgeon You need to spend 3-4 hours. Exceptions are sorting days, which take place monthly and take almost the whole day (15-16 hours). Sturgeon are excellent take root at home. They do not have any special requirements for feeding, lighting and maintenance. Sturgeon is practically not susceptible to any infectious or non-contagious diseases (with the exception of gastric disorders that occur when feeding low-quality food to the fish). The business will begin to pay for itself within 7-9 months.

What is an employee’s personal card? How to fill it out is described here.

Do you want to know if an individual entrepreneur is a legal entity? We recommend following the link. Well, do you still have doubts about the feasibility and prospects of home breeding of sturgeon?

Equipment for growing sturgeon at home is presented in the video below. We recommend that you look at the contents ^

Room

Having finally confirmed his intention to start breeding sturgeon, the entrepreneur must first of all find premises suitable for this purpose. If there are no plans to create a large fish farming holding in the near future, then an apartment or a private house will be suitable for placing fish “reservoirs”. It is recommended to select an area of ​​at least 30 m2 for growing sturgeon in pools. The premises must have: water supply, uninterrupted power supply (in case of power surges, you need to have one constantly running generator and one autonomous one), heating, ventilation and sewage system.

It is also necessary to take into account that sturgeons are quite shy and stress-resistant fish. Therefore, it is not recommended to place swimming pools near highways or public places (stadiums, markets). In addition, all sturgeon are bottom dwellers that do not require excessive lighting. back to content ^

Containers for breeding sturgeon

There are two main ways to grow sturgeon at home: in pools and in ponds. Let's consider both of these options. Swimming pools. For the first time, a novice businessman can purchase an ordinary plastic pool.

The dimensions of such a container are: diameter 1.5-2 m, and depth – up to 1 m. The yield of live products (per year) from such a small pool is approximately 1 ton. If you have certain skills, you can make a fish pool yourself.

This will reduce the cost of future production, but will require additional time. As production expands, additional pools will need to be purchased (or constructed). In this case, it is necessary to take into account the sizes of containers for various fish categories:

• for fish weighing up to 300 g - round-shaped pools with a depth of approximately 0.8 m and a diameter of 1.5 m; for fish weighing from 300 g to 2 kg - round-shaped pools with a depth of 1.2 m and a diameter of 2.2 m; sorting tanks (the larva weighing 0.5-5 g lives in them; sturgeon are sorted here) - rectangular trays with a depth and width of 50 cm and a length of 2.2 m.

But no matter what kind of pool it is, it is necessary to carefully monitor its cleanliness, regularly change the water and clean it, and also maintain a certain temperature of the air in the room and the water in the pool. Sturgeon feels great at temperatures from + 2 to + 27°C, but the best temperature is The regime for intensive growth and reproduction of fish ranges from + 17 to + 22°C. At this temperature, female sturgeon begin to throw caviar from the age of 6 (in nature, the process begins at 12-15 years of life of the fish).

In addition to the pool, for this type of sturgeon breeding you need to additionally purchase filters, a pump, a compressor, automatic feeders (optional, you can feed by hand), pipelines for air and water, nets, etc. Ponds. If a businessman has an artificial or natural pond on his personal plot, then sturgeon can be bred in it.

In this case, you will be able to save significantly on the purchase of equipment. Before you start using the artificial pond, you need to prepare it. To start from it drain the water completely, clean it and sprinkle the bottom of the pond with lime.

Then the lime is washed off and the pond is filled with water. After cleaning, it is necessary to introduce all kinds of mollusks and worms into the artificial reservoir; plant algae and other freshwater plants in the pond. All manipulations must be carried out 1.5-2 months before the expected landing of the fry in the pond. It is best to introduce the fry into the pond in the warm season (late spring or summer).

It is worth thinking about the wintering of sturgeon. To prevent the fish from simply freezing, it is better to send it to pools for the winter, and return it to the pond when it gets warmer. back to content ^

Feeding the fish

Sturgeon are not very picky eaters. But we must not forget that the rate of increase in live weight of sturgeons and their overall health directly depend on how high-quality food the fish eat. The following options are possible when feeding sturgeon:

1. Feeding with foreign feeds that have a high feed coefficient (FC); Feeding with domestic, “local” feeds;

" Fish

Food products will always be in demand, so a properly organized business in this area will generate significant income. Breeding sturgeon for sale in retail and restaurant chains can be organized not only on large farms, but also at home.

Such a business does not require large financial expenses at the initial stage, so almost every resident of our country, even a beginner, can organize it.

Like any type of business, breeding sturgeon at home has its advantages and disadvantages. The positive qualities include the following points in running this business.

• Low level of competition.
• Work from home.
• High profitability.
• Good and stable demand.

Of the shortcomings, the most noticeable are:

• Sensitivity of fry to water quality.
• Possible morbidity and mortality of the fry.
• Constant monitoring of compliance with conditions of detention is required.
• It is very difficult to purchase high-quality fry for breeding.

Despite these disadvantages, many entrepreneurs decide to organize this business at home.

Sturgeon is very sensitive to water quality, so all rules and requirements must be followed

Organizing a pond at home

To organize a pond at home, it is enough to purchase a plastic pool with a diameter of 3 meters. The optimal depth of the container should be 1 meter. More experienced businessmen can dig a pond.

If you have a spacious room, you can install several of these containers.

The distance between the pools must be sufficient for a person to move freely between them to service the tanks. The premises must be connected to electricity, water supply and sewerage.

Feed selection

To run a successful business in this area, it is recommended to use highly nutritious food specifically designed for growing sturgeon fish. Only with proper feeding will the fish give a good increase in live weight. The main characteristics of food for sturgeon should be as follows:

• Have an attractive odor to fish.
• Immediately sink to the bottom.
• The time for complete dissolution in water is at least 30 minutes.

Also, for each age of fish, the size of food granules should be selected as accurately as possible; food for sturgeon fry should be selected especially carefully.

Sturgeon food should have a pleasant smell and immediately sink to the bottom

Buying fry

You should purchase fry only from large fish farming enterprises. To achieve rapid weight gain, as well as to minimize the likelihood of death of small fish, it is not recommended to break this rule.

If among them there are large sturgeon breeding farms, then you can safely purchase fry for growing at home. To minimize risks, you should not purchase a large number of fry for the first cycle of fish farming.

In order to get an idea of ​​the profitability of a business, it is enough to buy no more than 500 pieces. This amount will be enough to effectively place fish in 2 - 3 containers intended for home sturgeon breeding.

Fry are purchased only from verified fish farms

Organizing a container for fry

Small fish not only need to select suitable food, but also organize a separate container. In such a container, the fry will grow until they can be transplanted into a larger tank.

In order to conveniently care for small fish, it is enough to purchase a plastic pool with a diameter of 1.5 and a depth of 0.7 meters. It is also necessary to ensure optimal temperature conditions and lighting of the tank for good growth of the younger generation.

You can make a RAS for fish or order a ready-made version.

Temperature

The rate of increase in live weight of the fish will depend on maintaining the required level of water temperature. The minimum value of this parameter is +16 degrees.

At temperatures of +27 and above, the sturgeon stops feeding, which is why it is so important to maintain the required level at all stages of growing this breed of fish. The optimal water temperature for growing sturgeon is 18 - 20 degrees.

The temperature in the tank should be around 18-20 degrees

Features of home sturgeon breeding

In artificial conditions, sturgeon grows a little faster than in the wild, due to the absence of food shortages and the maintenance of the required temperature parameters. Growing sturgeon at home from fry to market-weight fish takes, on average, 1.5 years. By this time, the sturgeon weighs about 2 kilograms and can be sold in wholesale quantities to specialized stores.

In one standard tank for growing sturgeon, up to 200 kg of excellent quality fish of this breed can be produced during one cycle.

The price of sturgeon will always be high, so to fully recoup the money spent on purchasing equipment, one cycle of growing this fish is enough.

The initial cost of purchasing equipment will be about 200 thousand rubles. The cost of fry of acceptable quality starts from 25 rubles. for 1 piece, so for one cycle you will need to spend about 20 thousand rubles on purchasing small fish.

Business payback - 1.5 years

The purchase of feed and payment of utilities for the entire full cycle of fish cultivation will cost the entrepreneur approximately 150 thousand rubles. The total costs for one year and a half cycle will be 370 thousand rubles.

Sturgeon from a home mini-farm is usually sold in wholesale quantities. When selling previously purchased fry for the amount of 20 thousand rubles. it will be possible to get about 700 thousand rubles. The profit for 1.5 years of growing sturgeon will be 330 thousand rubles., but from this amount you will also need to pay income tax and all contributions to the Pension Fund and compulsory medical insurance.

After gaining first experience, you can easily scale your business and earn significantly greater profits within a set period of time.

Breeding sturgeon at home is a very profitable type of business, but this will only remain so until everyone who wants to start a home food production takes up the cultivation of this fish, so you should not put off opening a home fish farm for a long time.

Sturgeon breeding as a business. Sturgeon breeding conditions. Video of a homemade RAS.

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Sturgeon fish farms are a very popular business in European countries. Countries such as France, Uruguay, Italy, as well as China and the USA are leading in the breeding of sturgeon in recirculating water supply installations for the production of black caviar. In our country, this business is only gaining popularity and this niche is almost empty.

Minimal competition allows novice entrepreneurs to engage in sturgeon breeding. Contrary to popular belief, the financial investment required is relatively small if you assemble the RAS yourself. The profit from the sale of black caviar is more than $1000 per 1 kg, the cost of 1 kg of sturgeon is more than $20.

Sturgeon breeding.

The sturgeon is listed in the Red Book, catching it in natural reservoirs is prohibited, the fine for catching an individual is more than 10,000 rubles. The shortage of sturgeon, and primarily black caviar, has pushed entrepreneurs to grow these types of fish in artificial reservoirs using closed water supply technologies, which make it possible not only to breed and grow sturgeon, but also to obtain black caviar from the fish.

In our country, the most common types of sturgeon are beluga, Siberian, Russian, stellate sturgeon, thorn, and sterlet. You can get caviar from sturgeon on a farm no earlier than 7 years, and this process cannot be accelerated. On fish farms they usually breed Siberian freshwater sturgeon and its hybrids, it is less whimsical, its period of puberty begins at 7 - 9 years, but Beluga is more demanding in terms of maintenance, the first caviar can be obtained from females at the age of 18. Therefore, it is practically not grown for caviar, although the cost of 1 kg of Beluga caviar exceeds $10,000.

Growing sturgeon requires special conditions, so they cannot live in most ordinary bodies of water. Sturgeon requires constantly running clean water with a high oxygen content, and the water temperature should not exceed 24 ° C; the optimal water temperature for sturgeon is 18 - 20 ° C. It is very difficult to create such conditions in most natural reservoirs, therefore, for sturgeon breeding, ichthyologists developed a closed water supply system.

Sturgeon breeding in RAS.

A closed water supply installation, or RAS for short, is a system consisting of:

• Pools.
• Oxygen generator.
• Water purification filters – mechanical drum filter, carbon filter, biofilter.
• Circulation pumps.
• Ozonizer and flotator.
• Oxygen, pressure, pH sensors.
• Air compressor.
• Ultraviolet lamp for water disinfection.
• Heat exchangers for heating and cooling water.
• Pipelines.

Pools are used in round or rectangular shapes; they can be polypropylene, metal with enamel coating, permanent ones made of concrete and ceramic tiles, or collapsible frame ones. Typically, polypropylene round pools with a depth of 1–1.5 m and a width of 2.5 m or more are used for RAS.

Purified water enriched with oxygen is constantly supplied to the pools, and part of the water is gradually pumped back, which is passed through purification filters, enriched with oxygen, and then pumped back into the pools with fish.

The water in the system is in constant circular circulation, while some of the water from the purification filters is still drained into the sewer system, and some of the water is pumped from the water supply system.

Water does not flow into the pools as a stream, but in the form of a shower; this method is used to additionally saturate the water with air.

Regardless of the time of year, the water temperature in the system is maintained at 18 – 20 °C. In winter, water heaters are used, in summer, coolers with heat exchangers are used.

As is known in natural conditions in winter, as the water temperature drops, the growth of sturgeon slows down significantly; the optimal temperature is constantly maintained in the RAS, and the fish does not stop growing. If in nature the sturgeon reaches sexual maturity at about the 15th year, then in a recirculation system it is already at 6–7 years. Starting from the age of 7, in a sturgeon farm, you can already receive caviar for fry production and sale.

The installation is located in a heated room, which can be a hangar, greenhouse, or any indoor space.

Sturgeon breeding conditions.

To start breeding sturgeon you will need to purchase fry. You can buy 5 gram fry in almost every sturgeon farm, the cost is about 15 rubles. a piece. Particular difficulty arises during transportation, because just a container with water is not enough for the fry; you will need to fit an aquarium air compressor into the container.

Before releasing the fry into the pools, the water temperature in the pools and in the container with the fry should be equalized.

In nature, sturgeon lead a bottom-dwelling lifestyle and feed on a variety of plankton, small fish, insects, worms, and mollusks. When kept in a recirculation system, natural feed is replaced with balanced feed with a high protein content. Each age of fish has its own food; the older the fish, the larger the size of the food granules used.

Experts recommend that beginners start with imported food; over time, you can learn how to make food yourself. As additional protein supplements for adult fish, boiled eggs of waterfowl - geese, ducks, as well as minced fish can be added to the feed.

At the age of up to one year, the fish is called a fingerling, then it becomes a yearling. Yearlings already weigh about 500 grams, this weight in restaurants is called portioned, from live fish weighing 500 grams, a cooked portion of 350 - 370 grams is obtained. Therefore, to sell sturgeon to restaurants, it is enough to grow fish up to a weight of 500 grams.

If you want to get caviar, the fish needs to be raised for about 7 years.

At the onset of puberty, in order for the fish to spawn, additional hormones are injected into it.

During the spawning period in females, the amount of eggs for the first time is 15% of the total weight of the female, in subsequent times more than 25%.

In nature, about 3% of the fry survive and grow from eggs; in a fish farm, this figure is more than 70%. During the spawning period, caviar is removed from the female, and milk is extracted from the male by milking, but the fish does not die, it is released back into the pools, and caviar is also obtained from the fish the next year.

Eggs in trays with water are fertilized and placed in incubators with running water. Under natural conditions, larvae develop from eggs only in running water, so the design of the incubator is built in such a way as to recreate the conditions for the development of larvae from eggs.

The incubator is a structure of several upper rows of trays, into which water is constantly drawn from pipes, and lower rows with eggs.

When the top tray is full of water, it hits the bottom tray and pours water into the tray with eggs. At the same time, the eggs in the tray are shaken and float, thus the eggs are constantly saturated with oxygen and washed with water.

A week later, sturgeon larvae emerge from the eggs and are transferred to the pool. The larvae grow very quickly and within a month they already turn into fry.

Sturgeon breeding as a business.

Sturgeon breeding is certainly a promising business, but the complexity of RAS technology forces many entrepreneurs to abandon such an undertaking.

If you are interested in sturgeon breeding, study the literature, visit the nearest sturgeon farm and consult with specialists.

You can find owners of sturgeon farms on forums on the Internet. It is not necessary to buy the entire RAS installation, you can assemble it yourself, it will be much cheaper, all the components are on sale.

There will be no problems with the sale of fish and black caviar, since there are practically no competitors in this business and the price for these products is consistently high.

Breeding sturgeon in a homemade RAS video (video author Aleksej Rublev).

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Instructions

If there is a pond in your garden plot, then you need to thoroughly clean it and put it in perfect order. If you don't have it, you can dig it yourself. The size and depth will depend only on you. A regular swimming pool is also suitable for breeding sterlet.

For the convenience of growing fish, use special cages. We must not forget that sterlet is an open-vesicle fish and during the period of open water it comes to the surface to swallow the necessary portion of air. It would be best to breed it in open cages.

Fill the pond with groundwater or rainwater. The oxygen content in it should not be lower than 5-6 mg/l, and the optimal temperature should be 20-22 °C. The water must be changed periodically; this procedure must be carried out within twenty-five days.

Buy grown fry. They must be purchased between May and September. This is best done in special farms that breed these fish. Such fry will be the most resistant to various types of human intervention in their lives and less susceptible to stress.

It is recommended to feed young sturgeon several times a day with daphnia, larvae of various insects, small crustaceans, and then shells. Crustaceans constitute the main food of the adult sturgeon. Watch the amount of food, it should not be too much.

In winter, at low temperatures, the fish hibernate. She should be ensured a state of complete rest, since if she remains awake, she will begin to expend energy and quickly lose weight.

Russia has always been famous for its sturgeon. Commercially, sturgeon fish are very valuable because they produce tasty meat and a large amount of expensive caviar. Their swim bladders and dorsal string are used.

How to properly breed sturgeon. Equipment

To breed sturgeon, you need to prepare a special container and the necessary equipment. At the initial stage of breeding, you can use a regular plastic pool one meter deep and 1.5-2.5 meters in diameter. This container must be equipped with a compressor, pump and filter to ensure aeration, purification and filtration.

High-quality equipment will allow you to do without special hired workers, which, in turn, will help you save money. If your budget allows, you can purchase an automatic feeder to save time.

The equipment should not operate at the limit, this will lead to a decrease in service life. Before buying a compressor and pump, you need to find out how much volume they can handle; it is better to take one with some power reserve. To save money, you can make a pool yourself from high-quality plastic. For the first time, one container will be enough.

How to properly breed sturgeon. Fry and nutrition

When the place for the fish and all the equipment are ready, you need to buy 5 grams of fry from a large fish farm that specializes in sturgeon breeding. It is almost impossible to obtain fry at home. This is the most important part of breeding, which cannot be skimped on. The growth rate and taste of the fish depend on the health of the purchased fry.

Sturgeon feels best and eats well at a temperature of 20-24 degrees. Fish of the sturgeon family feed from the bottom and find food using their sense of smell; accordingly, the food should smell good and sink in the water. The food should be very nutritious and contain: 50% crude protein, 25% crude fat, 3% fiber and some lysine and phosphorus. It is best to buy food specifically designed for sturgeon rather than try to make it yourself.

Sturgeon fry develop differently, some of them can weigh half a kilo after just six months, while others will gain this weight only after 7.5-8 months. The most valuable are specimens weighing a kilogram or more. In order for the sturgeon to grow faster, you need to regularly clean the container from bottom sediments, check the condition and sufficiency of the water volume.

If things are going well and the fish are breeding, you can purchase more breeding tanks. It should be noted that fish can also be kept in a greenhouse, while maintaining the required temperature.

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