Growth and survival of lake sturgeon larvae fed formulated diets

We conducted a 60‐d experiment to ascertain diet‐related differences in survival and growth of larval lake sturgeon Acipenser fulvescens. We offered formulated diets to larval lake sturgeon 2 weeks after first‐feeding to find a suitable formulated diet. The five formulated diets were fed to larvae in combination with live brine shrimp Artemia sp., which served as a control. There was no diet effect (P ≤ 0.05) on mean survival, which ranged from 67.4% to 58.3%. Lake sturgeon fed only brine shrimp were significantly greater in mean length (60.4 mm) at 68 d of age than all other treatments, and BioKyowa produced the lowest (44.2 mm) mean length. Mean weight of fish provided brine shrimp (0.74 g) was significantly greater than the weights of those fed the Tunison, Biodiet, or BioKyowa diets. There was no indication that larval lake sturgeon had consumed the formulated feeds; rather, it is likely they may have become imprinted on brine shrimp during the 2 weeks immediately following the onset of exogenous feeding.