Morphological characteristics:
The average body length is about 40 cm and the longest is 230 cm. It is the largest fish in the Yangtze River, so it is called "the fish king of the Yangtze River". ? The body is spindle-shaped, the tip of the head is long, and there are four whiskers in front of the mouth. The mouth is located on the ventral side, which is flexible and can be stretched into a tube. The body is covered with five lines of large and hard bone scales, one line on the back and two lines on the body side and the ventral side. The caudal fin is crooked, the lateral fin has a broad base, and the dorsal fin is opposite to the gluteal fin.
Life habits:
Sturgeon inhabits the middle and lower layers of water. The migratory species of Haihe River and the sedentary species of rivers move to the upper reaches of the river during spawning period. In winter, it is mostly in rivers or deep waters near the shore. The larvae usually eat plankton. In the juvenile stage, benthic aquatic oligochaeta, aquatic insects, small fish, shrimp and molluscs are the main foods. In the adult stage, they eat zoobenthos or animal and plant dregs, while the shovel sturgeon still eats plankton.
Population status:
Among the 27 species of sturgeon in the world, 23 species are endangered, and 17 species are listed as extremely endangered by IUCN, which means that the freshwater ecosystem with sturgeon as its flagship species is in decline.
Extended data
Distribution range:
ACIPENSER sinensis is the only species of ACIPENSER that crosses the Tropic of Cancer. It was mainly distributed in coastal areas and major rivers south of the west coast of the Korean Peninsula, from the Jinsha River to the estuary of the Yangtze River in China, and other water systems such as Ganjiang River, Xiangjiang River, Minjiang River, Qiantang River and Pearl River occasionally appeared, with the Yangtze River producing more.
Protection level:
It was listed in the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species IUCN) 2009 ver3.1-CRitical (Cr). ?
Included in the Washington Convention CITES Appendix II protected animals.
Included in the Red List of Species in China: Endangered (EN).
It is listed in the Red Book Fish of Endangered Animals in China. ?
Baidu encyclopedia-ACIPENSER sinensis
Baidu encyclopedia-sturgeon