Sturgeon hybrids. Bester fish. Setting goals and getting started

The name "bester" was invented by Nikolai Ivanovich Nikolyukin. It is easy to guess that it is composed of the first syllables of the names of the parents of the hybrid. The case was like that in translation from English "best" means "the best, the best." And the hybrid began to justify the meaning hidden in its name. The effect was truly extraordinary. In the ponds, not some, but sturgeon fish grew up, matured and gave offspring! Fish whose heredity has been formed over millions of years and for which any change in their habitual habitat turned out to be disastrous. And here they grow in ponds, like ordinary carps.

Bester combines the rapid growth of the beluga and the early maturation of the sterlet, it is relatively easy to get used to artificial feed and is not picky about heat (growth temperature range 0.5-30.0 ° C). Length up to 1.8 m, weight up to 30 kg. Puberty females at the age of 6-8 years, males at 3-4 years. Fertile. In aquaculture, hybrids of the first generation for 2 years of cultivation in cages and pools reach a mass of 1 kg or even more. When grown in ponds, three-year-olds reach a marketable weight of 1.5-2.0 kg, in pools - 6-8 kg. Females weighing 12-18 kg give 2-3 kg of black caviar.

Today bester is a valuable perspective object for breeding and rearing in inland waters on an industrial scale. Object of cage breeding. Bester inherited the best qualities of the original forms: increased vitality, the possibility of ripening in fresh water, a tendency to predatory nutrition and high palatability. Bester is hardy, gets sick a little, besides it is absolutely not aggressive.

Body color varies from gray to dark gray with a beige tint. It looks almost like a sterlet, but grows 3-4 times faster.

Bester mainly feeds on insects and their larvae, small crustaceans, small fish. With intensive cultivation, bester is fed with minced meat prepared from weedy fish, waste from meat slaughterhouses, etc.

Everyone knows that sturgeon meat is incredibly tasty, but not everyone knows that the taste of bester exceeds ordinary sturgeon.

Bester does not reproduce on its own under artificial conditions, although this hybrid is capable of reproduction. The offspring from crossing the sturgeon-beluga are obtained from producers caught in natural reservoirs.

Besters get into the wild Siberian waters through the "fault" of fish farms and are periodically caught by fishermen.

Beluga

Sterlet

Bester

Leading hydrobiologist of the Omsk branch of the Federal State Budgetary Institution "VERKHNEOBRYBVOD" Zubarev S.B.

Bester is an artificially obtained hybrid of fish of the sturgeon family. To obtain this hybrid, male sterlet and female beluga are crossed. The name came from the addition of the first syllables of the words "beluga" and "sterlet".

This hybrid fish was bred in the USSR in 1952. Professor Nikolyukin was engaged in the work, and his student Burtsev continued it. Thus, work began on breeding the world's first hybrid of sturgeon fish that could produce offspring.

Features of besters

Besters grow fast like beluga and ripen early like sterlets. These fish easily get used to artificial food and are not too demanding on temperature conditions.

In length, besters reach 1.8 meters, and the mass can reach up to 30 kilograms. Puberty in male besters occurs at 3-4 years, and in females - at 8 years.

When growing hybrids of the first generation in cages, they can gain more than a kilogram in 2 years. If besters are grown in ponds, then their weight can reach up to 2 kilograms, and in pools - up to 8 kilograms. In females weighing 12-18 kilograms, the mass of caviar reaches 2-3 kilograms.

Besters are fed with special food intended for sturgeons, fish waste, fresh or frozen fish. The optimal area of ​​ponds for breeding besters is 0.1-04 hectares, the planting density of one-year-olds is approximately 7 thousand specimens per hectare.

How besters appeared

Professor Nikolyukin wrote a dissertation, the topic of which was "Interspecific hybridization of fish", then he began to closely engage in the hybridization of sturgeons. He decided to take new form sturgeons that could live in reservoirs. That is, he wanted to get fish that would be valued like sturgeons, but sedentary life and did not go on a long journey to spawn.

In 1952, the professor's wife, who worked with her husband, decided to fertilize beluga caviar with sterlet milk. No one could have imagined that this unplanned attempt would be the beginning of a new direction in fishing.

A fishing station near Saratov was used as an experimental laboratory. For experiments fish were brought by fishermen. For crossing, it is necessary that both caviar and milk are fully ripe, so more and more new individuals had to be caught. Pituitary injections have become a real salvation - when extracts from the pituitary gland of other fish are injected into the spinal muscles of fish, their milk and caviar mature in a couple of days.

In nature, sterlet and beluga hybrids are not found, because they are too big difference in size between these fish: sterlet most often weigh 1.5-2 kilograms, and the mass of beluga can reach up to a ton. In addition, they spawn at different times.

Also, breeders could be stopped by the fact that sterlet and beluga belong to different genera of sturgeons. And everyone knows that interracial crossing does not produce fertile offspring.

But when they began to study the genetic characteristics of these fish, an unexpected fact was discovered that struck the experimenters - all sturgeons (except for the sturgeon itself) have an equal number of chromosomes. The sturgeon has twice as many chromosomes, so hybrids with sturgeon turn out to be infertile. And the sterlet and beluga, walking and completely different, can interbreed, although this seems impossible.

Success of the experiment

After crossing the beluga with the sterlet in the course of the experiment, fry appeared from the eggs a week later. They were very active. The first hybrids were placed in the ponds of the fisheries of the Saratov region.

It's time to wait. As was known, hybrids with sturgeon were sterile, and other hybrids did not produce very viable offspring, although they could have the ability to reproduce. It was not clear how long they would have to wait, since maturation in sterlet occurs by 6-8 years, and in beluga by 6 years. But scientists were incredibly surprised when their hybrids reached puberty at 3 years old. This applied to males.

The females did not fare so well. Years passed, and the caviar froze at the second stage of maturity, it did not accumulate the yolk, which the embryo feeds on.

The experiment was continued in 1963, when the hybrids were transferred to the Aksai fish farm near Rostov-on-Don, where the climate is warmer. The older individuals were already at the age of 12 years. Them average weight was 1.5 kilograms.

Over the summer, with enhanced nutrition, the fish began to reach a weight of 6 kilograms, and the females became ready for motherhood. A year later, second-generation hybrids appeared, born from hybrid males and females - this was a real event.

Bester is the best of the best

The name of the hybrids was given by Nikolyukin, as noted, it was composed of the first syllables of fish varieties, but it happened by chance that with English word"best" translates as "the best". And the hybrid really lived up to its name. The effect was truly amazing. In the ponds, sturgeons grew up and brought offspring, and yet their heredity was formed over millions of years, and any change in their habitat was disastrous for them. And now they, like ordinary carps, can develop in ponds.

Today bester is a highly valued object of industrial breeding. These hybrids inherited the best qualities: the possibility of life in fresh water, increased vitality, predatory nutrition and excellent taste.

The body color of besters can be gray or dark gray with beige hues. Besters look almost the same as sterlets, but grow 3-4 times faster.

There are several breeds of besters: Burtsevsky, Aksai and Vnirovsky - the largest bester. All these breeds are highly valued throughout the years of breeding.

Besters are prepared chilled or frozen. The taste qualities of bester meat exceed the taste qualities of ordinary sturgeons.

Reproduction of besters

Under artificial conditions, besters do not reproduce on their own, although these hybrids are not sterile.

Producers are caught in the spring, they are given pituitary injections, which accelerate the process of development of the reproductive products of fish. Maturation in sterlet after injection occurs after 24-25 hours, and in beluga - after 48-60 hours. In order to obtain eggs from the female, the female is slaughtered and the blood is bled out, as it can get into the eggs.

Beluga caviar is filtered into basins and sterlet sperm is added to it. Sperm is taken from several male producers. After a few minutes, the water is drained, and the caviar is washed in a suspension of clay or river silt so that it loses its stickiness. After that, she is sent to incubation. Incubation lasts about 5-10 days, its duration depends on the water temperature.

Hatched fry are transplanted into pools. Larvae that actively feed are sent to ponds. Besters are fed minced fish or fish waste.

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Bester (according to the first syllables of the words beluga and sterlet) is a hybrid of two species of fish of the sturgeon family, obtained by artificially crossing a beluga with a sterlet. First received in 1952 in the USSR. Bester combines the rapid growth of the beluga and the early maturation of the sterlet. In aquaculture, hybrids of the first generation for 2 years of cultivation in cages and pools reach a mass of 1 kg or even more. Bester is an artificially obtained hybrid of fish of the sturgeon family.

It is difficult now to say why the attempt to fertilize beluga caviar with sterlet milk turned out to be one of the last in this series of experiments. Perhaps, the circumstance that under natural conditions beluga hybrids with sterlet do not occur played some role here.

Bester is the best of the best

Sturgeon, sterlet, stellate sturgeon and the thorn that lives in the Caspian and Aral seas - all of them belong to the genus Acipenser. That's when it finally became clear why hybrids with sturgeon are invariably sterile. Something was already known about hybrids of other sturgeons.

The older individuals of this herd were already in their twelfth year. The fish weighed an average of one and a half kilograms. And the hybrid began to justify the meaning hidden in its name. The effect was truly extraordinary. Today bester is a valuable perspective object for breeding and rearing in inland waters on an industrial scale. Bester inherited the best qualities of the original forms: increased vitality, the possibility of ripening in fresh water, a tendency to predatory nutrition and high palatability.

General characteristics of fish

One of the main factors affecting the health and growth of fish is feeding. Bester is also grown in fishing ponds. Bester does not reproduce on its own under artificial conditions, although this hybrid is capable of reproduction.

Due to the fact that fish producers are selective in fertilization, several males are used for this. Larvae that have switched to active feeding are transplanted into fry or rearing ponds. With intensive cultivation, bester is fed with minced meat prepared from weedy fish, waste from meat slaughterhouses, etc.

Overview of the sturgeon family

It was first obtained in 1952 by N.I.Nikolyukin. Bester is the only representative of sturgeons, the existence of which has been maintained in aquaculture for more than 40 years, with a reproduction of three generations. The production qualities of different breeds of bester are determined by the ratio of the shares of heredity of the beluga and sterlet in their genotypes.

Bester fish is the result of the hard work of breeders to develop new noble commercial fish species. Bester is a hybrid of two species of fish belonging to the sturgeon family. It is worth noting that Bester fish significantly exceeds the main biological indicators of its "parents". In addition, bester fish stand out for their larger size and better viability in a constantly changing environment.

The researchers recorded the maximum weight of an adult Bester fish, which was thirty kilograms. Usually, bester is grown in the so-called cage and pool fish farms. The uniqueness of this species of sturgeon lies in the fact that it is the only species that has been successfully and continuously cultivated by humans for half a century.

It is these three breeds of bester that have shown themselves excellently throughout the entire period of fish breeding. It is noteworthy that one or another subspecies of bester fish can only be distinguished from another by a professional. The main difference between fish breeds can be considered the genetic fund of bester, in which the distinctive biological parameters of the beluga or sterlet may prevail.

Bester fish are subjected to various types culinary heat treatment. Professional chefs advise baking and smoking bester fish, which can become a real decoration of any festive feast. For the purchase of a stock of sturgeon weighing 1 gram or more, as well as the purchase of fish for stocking in ponds, please contact the numbers listed on the Contacts page.

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To obtain this hybrid, male sterlet and female beluga are crossed. This hybrid fish was bred in the USSR in 1952. Professor Nikolyukin was engaged in the work, and his student Burtsev continued it. Besters grow fast like beluga and ripen early like sterlets.

If besters are grown in ponds, then their weight can reach up to 2 kilograms, and in pools - up to 8 kilograms. That is, he wanted to get fish that would be valued as sturgeons, but led a sedentary lifestyle and did not go on a long journey to spawn.

He was one of the few whose thought went in a somewhat different direction. He expressed the idea of ​​breeding new forms of sturgeon fish that could inhabit reservoirs. Then it never occurred to anyone that this unplanned experiment (just a little caviar and milk left) would mark the beginning of a new direction in modern fish farming. For those times, the event in fish farming was exceptional, but after these bold experiments in the hybridization of sturgeons, there was a lull.

The first hybrids were placed in the ponds of the fisheries of the Saratov region. In 1952, the professor's wife, who worked with her husband, decided to fertilize beluga caviar with sterlet milk. Bester is a hybrid of beluga and sterlet. Like others sturgeon breeds bester fish was able to take its rightful place in the global culinary tradition. As a rule, bester fish does not exceed two meters in length.