Amu Darya sturgeon
The Amu Darya sturgeon or false shovelnose sturgeon is a critically endangered species of fish in the family Acipenseridae. It is found in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and perhaps Afghanistan. It inhabits quite shallow flowing waters that are turbid and muddy.
Appearance
The Amu Darya sturgeon is a small sturgeon, but the largest species of Pseudoscaphirhynchus, reaching up to in weight and in total length, excluding tail filament. It has a long, thin tail filament. For example, two individuals that both had a length of about excluding tail filament were and including tail filament. The species occurs in two morphs: a relatively large, light-coloured and late maturing morph, and a small, dark-coloured and early maturing morph. The small morph is roughly of similar size to P. hermanni, a species that lacks a tail filament.Behavior
The Amu Darya sturgeon feeds on small fish and aquatic insect larvae, with large individuals being mostly piscivorous.Studies in the 1960s and 1970s showed that Amu Darya sturgeon reach maturity when 5–8 years old, but in the 1990s the youngest mature individuals only were 4 years old, possibly due to environmental changes in their habitat. The breeding season is from March to May when the water is. During a season, a female of the large morph lays about 3,100–36,500 eggs and a female of the small morph about 1,000–2,000 eggs, but it is possible that they only do this every 4–5-year. The species can reach an age of more than 14 years. Historically, it was known to hybridize with P. hermanni, with the offspring having features that are intermediate between the two species.
Conservation status
The Amu Darya sturgeon once occurred throughout the Amu Darya river basin, including its delta in the Aral Sea, today it is found in the middle Amu Darya River in Turkmenistan and also lower in Kyzylrabat area, also in more lower Amu Darya River and in the lower Vakhsh River in Tajikistan. It has declined because of habitat loss, pollution and poaching, and is rated as critically endangered by the IUCN. Despite its threatened status, strong decline and range contraction, it can be locally fairly common and overall it is the least rare species of Pseudoscaphirhynchus.In general the status of the Amu Darya sturgeon is poorly known and further surveys are necessary. A part of its range is in the Amudarya State Nature Reserve. Although the Amu Darya sturgeon is a fully protected species throughout its range, illegal fishing is widespread and fisheries management in the region is very poor. The species has been listed on CITES Appendix II since 1998. This restricts international trade in the species, but two were legally exported from Uzbekistan to Russia for zoological purposes in 2002–2012, and in 2013 Uzbekistan set the export quota to twenty individuals.
Many sturgeon species have been bred in captivity and this often forms the basis for restocking the wild populations. In the 1980s there were attempts of doing this with the Amu Darya sturgeon. Although some progress was made, captive breeding ultimately failed because the embryos died. Since 2010, Eurasian Regional Association of Zoos and Aquariums has attempted to start a breeding program for the Amu Darya sturgeon, but as of 2021 it has not succeeded has temporary stopped shovelnose conservation project because of lack of financial support) although some progress was made.