Rare, gigantic, endangered fish looking for a new home

Three Black Russian sturgeon that are currently swimming at the University of Manitoba have grown too big for their tanks and need a new home, according to a story in the Winnipeg Free Press:

Black Russian sturgeons can grow to about four metres in length and weigh nearly 50 kilograms. In the wild, they live between 30 and 50 years but in captivity they could live to be nearly a century old, provided they’re kept in a sufficiently large tank.

Terry Dick, a professor in biological sciences at the U of M, said fish this size obviously can’t be kept in the same bowl as your goldfish.

“They would have to go to a public aquarium,” he said, noting the three fish are now each a metre in length, after having arrived at one-tenth that size.

Although the Freep says that there are three fish, the original press release at the University of Manitoba refers to “Igor and his three friends”:

The sturgeons, Acipenser gueldenstaedtii, are renowned for producing great caviar. They are also docile – open the tank lid and they come to the surface for petting – and they are big: they currently stretch about a meter in length but will grow to four meters.

Technically the Canadian Wildlife Services own the fish so all owners need to be approved by them, but staff members in the department of biological sciences are propositioning aquariums and research study groups.

“We love taking care of them but we can’t do it for much longer because they’re getting too big for us,” a spokesperson said. “It will be sad to see them go but as long as they go to a good home we’ll be happy.”

The fish were seized from smugglers about two years ago and would be worth big bucks on the black market for their caviar.

I haven’t been to the Assiniboine Zoo in ages — do they have any kind of aquariam/tank facility? Seems a shame to ship these fish off somewhere else when they could be an asset in Manitoba.

And come on — maybe it would take some money to construct and run such a facility, but a “Black Russian” fundraiser? It writes itself!

(Picture by Joe Bryska, Winnipeg Free Press. I am *assuming* that by watermarking their image, the Free Press is tacitly allowing people to copy and use it. I have linked the picture back to the original article. However, as always, if you have copyright concerns, contact me and I’m happy to work something out.)