Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Fisheries and for a world without hunger Aquaculture Department

Species Fact Sheets Pseudoscaphirhynchus kaufmanni (Kessler, 1874)

Pseudoscaphirhynchus kaufmanni: (click for more)

Synonyms Scaphirhynchus kaufmanni Kessler, 1877: 194 (Kessler, K. T.,1877). Appeared first in Bogdanov, 1874: XLVII with no distinguishing features. (Bogdanov, M. N.,1874.[Untitled.]. Trudy St. Petersburg. Obsh. Estestv. v. 5: XLVIII-XLVIII).

FAO Names En - Amu Darya sturgeon, Fr - , Sp - . 3Alpha Code: PSF Taxonomic Code: 1170100602

Scientific Name with Original Description Scaphirhynchus kaufmanni Kessler, 1877: 194. The Aralo-Caspian Expedition. IV. Fishes of the Aralo- Caspio-Pontine ichthyological region. Aralo-Caspian Exped. i-xxvii + 1-360. St. Petersburg. Lower Amu Darya River, Uzbekistan. Supplement to: Trudy St. Petersburg. Obsh. Estestv.

Diagnostic Features Head shield-shaped. Snout broad, spade-like, completely flat on the lower surface. Very small eyes. Spiracle absent. Snout depressed. Caudal peduncle slighly depressed, short and completely armored above, but incomplete below. Mouth small, transverse: the upper lip is divided in the middle. The lower lip is broader than the upper and also slighly divided. Branchiostegal connection broad. With two pairs of barbels not fringed and evently placed. There are 2-4 spines on the tip of the rostrum, frontal and parietal spines. Gill rakers fan- shaped. D25-37. A15-24 rays. First ray of the pectoral fin, very strong and sharp. The upper lobe of the epicercal caudal is prolongued in a long filament. 10-14 (common 12) dorsal scutes. 30-38 (33-35) lateral scutes. 6-10 (7-8) ventral scutes. There are 4-6 flat scutes between anal and ventral fins and 1-4 scutes posterior to anal fin. Colour: dorsum from grey to almost blak, ventrum white (Mayden & Kuhajda, 1996; Birstein, 1997).

FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department Geographical Distribution The large Amu-Darya sholvenose sturgeon, is an endemic of the Amu Darya River (Zholdasova, 1997). Launch the Aquatic Species Distribution map viewer

Habitat and Biology It inhabits shallow-water parts of the river over sandy or stony-pebble bottoms, main channels at depths of 1.0- 1.5 m.Young individuals feed mainly on larvae of Chironomidae (fifteen species), ephemeropterans and fishes (Capoetobrama kuschakewitscki and Rhinogobius spp.). Adult are benthophagous and icthyophagous: Barbus brachycephalus, Aspius aspius, Acipenser nudiventris, C. kuschakewitscki, and Noemacheilus oxianus constituted up to 64.5 % of their diet.Population dynamics: in the past, the maximum size reported was 75 cm; in the 1960s, the average size was 37 cm with a predominance of 3 to 6 years old individuals , while in the late 1980s the population consisted mostly of young (1 to 6 years old) with a predominance of 3-4 years old (Zholdasova, 1997). In late March-early April. Males become mature at 5-7 years and females, at 6-8 years. They reproduce at a water temperature of 14-16°C.

Size Maximum size: 75 cm and 2 kg in weight. Usually smaller.

Interest to Fisheries Fishing is prohibitied.

Local Names FRANCE : Gran nez-pelle de l'Amu Daria . GERMANY : Grobber Pseudoschaufelstör . POLAND : Wielki lopatonos . SPAIN : Esturión del Amu Daria . UZBEKISTAN : Elan Luiryk . TURKMENISTAN : Tuchkan Kuiryk . UNITED KINGDOM : False sholvenose sturgeon . USA : Large Amu-Dar sholvenose sturgeon .

Remarks Historically hybridized with the other species of the genus.

Bibliography Bemis, W. E, E. K. Findeis & L. Grande - 1997. An overview of Acipenseriformes. Environ. Biol. Fishes . v. 48: 25-71.. Berg, L. S - 1948. Fresh-water fishes of Soviet Union and adjacent countries. Freshw. Fish. USSR, Guide Fauna USSR No. 27. . 1-466.. In Russian. Transl. available, 1962, Smithson. Inst. by Israel Prog. Sci. Transl. Birstein, V.J. - 1993. Sturgeons and paddlefishes: threatened fishes in need of conservation. Conserv. Biol. . 7:773-787..

FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department Birstein, V.J. - 1997. Threatened fishes of the world: Pseudoscaphirhynchus spp. (Acipenseridae). Environ. Biol. Fish. . 48:381-383.. Eschmeyer, W.N - 1998. Catalog of fishes. Special Publication, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco. 3 vols. . 2905 p"/> .. Hilton-Taylor, C. - 2000. 2000 IUCN red list of threatened species. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK. . xviii + 61 p.. With 1 CD-ROM Kamilov, G. & Zh.U. Urchinov - 1995. Fish and fisheries in Uzbekistan under the impact of irrigated agriculture. In T. Petr (ed.) Inland fisheries under the impact of irrigated agriculture: Central Asia. FAO Fisheries Circular No. 894. . 10-41.. Kessler, K. T. - 1872. Ichthyological Fauna of Turkestan Izv. Imp. Obsh. Lyub. Estestv. Antro. Etno. . 47- 76.: 70 (26), Pl. 12 (Figs.36-41). Syr Darya R. Near Chinaz, Kazakhstan. Kuhajda, B.R., R.L. Mayden, V.B. Salnikov & V.J. Birstein - 2000. Examination of intraspecific variation and life history characteristics of Pseudoscaphirhynchus kaufmanni and P. hermanni (Actinopterygii, Acipenseridae), central Asian sturgeon endemic to the Amu Darya River. In: Program book and abstracts. Joint (80th) meeting of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpatologists (ASIH), American Elasmobranch Society (AES), Herpatologists League (HL), Neotropical Ichthyological Assoc. (NIA), SSAR, CAH. . 223- 224.. Mayden, R.L. & B.J.Kuhajda - 1996. Systematics, Taxonomy, and conservation status of the endangered Alabama sturgeon, Scaphirhynchus suttkusi William and Clemmer (Actinopterygii, Acipenseridae). Copeia . 1996 (2): 241-273.. Salnikov, V. B, V. J. Birstein & R. L. Mayden - 1996. The contemporary status of the two Amu Darya River shovelnose sturgeons, Pseudoscaphirhynchus kaufmanni and P. hermanni. The Sturgeon Quarterly. . 4 (3): 10-14.. Tleuov, R.T. & N.I. Sagitov - 1973. Acipenserid fishes of the Aral Sea. FAN Press, Tashkent . 155 pp.. In Russian. Zholdasova, I. - 1997. Sturgeons and the Aral Sea ecological catastrophe. Environm. Biol. Fish. . 48: 373- 380..

FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department