Sturgeon breeding at home as a business: expert advice

Sturgeon breeding in home conditions is a fairly profitable business, as many people want to see black caviar on their table and are willing to pay big money for a quality product. But in order to make good money on sturgeon breeding, you need to create a really good product, and for this, carry out proper fish care. Let's take a closer look at the nuances of this business.

Advantages and features of sturgeon breeding

Breeding sturgeon is in great demand among entrepreneurs, as this business is quite easy to start from scratch with the necessary capital. The payback on this investment is also quite high, and the risk of leaving minus is minimal.

So, here are the main benefits of sturgeon breeding as a business:

1. Since caviar and sturgeon meat is expensive and has a great demand in the sales market, the payback of your business will be ensured. True, first you will have to spend a lot of money - equipment for sturgeon breeding costs from 200 thousand rubles.
2. Caring for sturgeons is quite easy, as they are undemanding to living conditions and tolerate temperature extremes well. The main thing is to follow the basic rules, which we will talk about a little later.
3. With food, too, there should be no problems. In specialized stores you can buy ready-made food that contains all the substances necessary for sturgeon.

Sturgeon Breeding Feed

It’s quite difficult to prepare food for sturgeons on your own, since it must contain all the substances useful for these fish, namely:

• protein;
• fiber;
• phosphorus;
• crude fat;
• other useful trace elements.

It is much more profitable to buy a ready-made mixture. There are many different mixtures on the sales market from domestic and foreign manufacturers, so you can easily choose the mixture that suits you in terms of price and quality.

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It is important to regularly feed the fish. Fry should be fed 6 times a day, adults - 4 times. It is advisable to make equal intervals between feedings. It is good if the food has a pleasant persistent smell, because it attracts sturgeons.

Breeding sturgeon in a private home

Breeding sturgeon at home will be even easier with a private home. So, in the adjacent area you can make a pond, create a suitable living environment in it and not spend extra money on specialized equipment.

So, for starters you will need to create an artificial pond. For this, it is best to contact professionals. Before settling the fry, the pond must be cleaned and liming performed: pour a layer of lime on the bottom of the pond, dilute it with plenty of water and rinse it at the end of the procedure.

You can’t run fry in the “naked​»A pond in which there will be only water. It is imperative to create a fauna familiar to sturgeon by placing algae, various fertilizers, reeds, worms and mollusks in the water.If flies and other insects get into the pond before settling the fry, it is not necessary to catch them at all.

When the pond is ready, you can move the fry there. This is best done in the summer and preferably at night. When the fry grow, they should be transplanted into a spawning pond, also created artificially. When buying sturgeon fish for breeding, always pay attention to their condition, because if one fish is infected with some kind of infection, it can infect everyone else.

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Sturgeon and sterlet are very heat-loving fish, so if you plan to breed sturgeon in the pond, then you definitely need to take care of heating the water in the cold seasons. If for some reason there is no possibility to set the heating, then for the winter sturgeon can be moved to the pool.

Equipment for growing sturgeon

So, for the cultivation of sturgeon for sale, you can create suitable conditions both in the apartment and in a private house. How to create suitable conditions for landing fry in a private house, we have already considered, now we will talk in more detail about the option with the apartment.

More specifically, about the equipment that will be needed for sturgeon breeding at home:

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1. A room of at least 30 square meters. meters. This room must have electricity, water supply and sewage, and it is also desirable to have autonomous generators.
2. Pools in which sturgeons will live. You can make them yourself or order in specialized companies.
3. Automatic feeders. This thing is far from the first necessity, because you can feed fish manually, but later, when your business expands, such feeders can save a lot of time.
4. Pumps They will definitely be needed for pumping water.
5. Oxygen generators will supply fish with oxygen. There are several types of oxygen generators. Which one is right for you can be understood by reading the specifications.
6. Filters The water in which sterlet and sturgeon live, must be clean, so there is no way to do without filters. If you ignore the installation of filters, then there will be a lot of debris in the water, and, consequently, bacteria, so a surge of various infections can occur.
7. Incubators that are used to mature eggs.
8. Pipes for creating a closed water supply system.

These are the largest and most important purchases you will have to spend on. And also in the process you will need to buy containers for fish, scales, buckets, etc., but these acquisitions will not be so expensive.

Conditions for landing and growth of fry

After all the equipment is purchased and ready for use, you can begin to grow fry. To begin with, of course, you need to purchase them. There are special farms that are engaged in fish farming. In one of these places you need to buy a batch of fry. Take this task with great care, since how much healthy fry you put in a pool or pond depends on which product you get in the end, and, consequently, your earnings.

Fry can be planted in a prepared container immediately after purchase. Both fry and adult sturgeons do not need to carry out complex care, which is a big plus for beginners. Here are a few key conditions:

• the pool or pond should always have the right temperature;
• Be sure to feed the fry in a timely manner;
• fry and grown individuals should be kept in different pools;
• always keep the water clean.

Fish care

Continuing the theme of sturgeon care in home conditions for beginners, once again focus on the temperature regime of water. In the cold seasons, the water temperature should be equal to 17-18 degrees Celsius, in the summer, the temperature can range from 20 to 25 degrees. If the water is cold, this will certainly affect the state of sturgeons.

The filter and sterilizers will help control the condition of the water, so your intervention in this process is not required. As for feeding, then everything is also simple. We repeat that fry need to be fed 6 times a day, and adult fish need only 4 feedings per day. The food can be of different sizes and it is also worth paying attention to, since smaller forage is suitable for fry, and it will be more convenient for adults to use the mixture in larger pieces.

Possible problems and solutions

No matter how ideal the fry breeding business may seem, there are drawbacks to everything. The main problem that can be encountered at the very beginning is the death of fry. Often fry die not because of poor conditions or external factors, but simply because it is a natural process. According to statistics, about 10% of fry die per year and nothing can be done about it. An equally common problem is a power outage. To avoid this, it is worth installing an autonomous generator.

The next problem is equipment failure. This is a fairly common problem in all areas of activity, so it is difficult to prevent it.

Sturgeon breeding business

Breeding sturgeon as a business is a very profitable idea. Despite the fact that initially you will have to make an investment of 200 thousand rubles for the purchase of equipment, the business will soon begin to pay for itself. And also you constantly have to spend money on the purchase of feed and payment for electricity, which is about 150 thousand for a full cycle of growing fish.

At the beginning of the cycle, you will also have to buy fry, which is approximately 20 thousand. In total, your starting capital will be 370 thousand, but after only 1 full cycle of growing fish, you can cover expenses and make the first profit.

It is most profitable to wholesale sturgeons, for example, in restaurants. This guarantees you a stable profit, and also allows you to sell goods at a bargain price. Sturgeon prices are quite high, therefore, with 1 kg of fish you will receive about 500 rubles profit. For the year, you can earn about 400 thousand rubles of net profit on sturgeon cultivation.

To learn more about this topic, we recommend that you watch the video below.