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Equipment for sturgeon farm. Sterlet - from fry to commercial fish at home

Solving the issue of food security of the planet's population is among the most important tasks of the 21st century. Therefore, a novice entrepreneur who decides to create a business for the production and sale of food products will almost 100% win.

Growing sturgeon at home is not only an excellent alternative to traditional livestock farming sectors (pig farming, cattle breeding and poultry farming). This is also a unique opportunity to obtain high-quality, environmentally friendly fish products that have no analogues in their taste. (sturgeon meat), “royal” delicacy black caviar and unique sturgeon skin. The extensive group of fish under the general name “sturgeon” includes the following breeds: Siberian sturgeon, beluga, Russian sturgeon, sterlet, stellate sturgeon and some others.

And although the listed breeds differ from each other anatomically and physiologically, they are similar in terms of the most important indicators for a fish farmer: all sturgeon are not very picky about food, and most importantly, they all feel great in fresh water.

Features of the sturgeon business

When considering whether to start doing this particular business, you need to take into account that breeding sturgeon at home has a number of features:

High demand for fish products and a wide area where sturgeon is sold (restaurants, specialized fish stores, hypermarkets, pet stores, etc.).
Relatively low competition(not everyone will engage in this business, and many simply have not heard of this type of activity).
Doesn't require huge investments. To start a business, a novice fish farmer-entrepreneur will not need a large amount of money.
It is not necessary to have special knowledge on the topic. Start farming sturgeon It is possible with a minimum of knowledge about fish. Everything comes with experience, as well as from numerous literature and the Internet.
Business does not take much time. Daily sturgeon You need to spend 3-4 hours. The exceptions are sorting days, which take place monthly and take almost the whole day (15-16 hours).
Sturgeon are wonderful take root at home. They do not have any special requirements for feeding, lighting and maintenance.
Sturgeon is practically not susceptible to any infectious or non-contagious diseases (with the exception of gastric disorders that occur when feeding low-quality food to the fish).
The business will begin to pay for itself within 7-9 months.

Well, do you still have doubts about the feasibility and prospects of domestic sturgeon breeding?

Room

Having finally confirmed his intention to start breeding sturgeon, the entrepreneur must first of all find premises suitable for this purpose. If there are no plans to create a large fish farming holding in the near future, then an apartment or a private house will be suitable for housing fish “reservoirs”.

It is recommended to select an area of at least 30 m² for growing sturgeon in pools. The premises must have: water supply, uninterrupted power supply (in case of power surges, you need to have one constantly running generator and one autonomous one), heating, ventilation and sewage system.

It is also necessary to take into account that sturgeons are quite shy and stress-resistant fish. Therefore, it is not recommended to place swimming pools near highways or public places (stadiums, markets). In addition, all sturgeon are bottom dwellers that do not require excessive lighting.

Containers for breeding sturgeon

There are two main ways to raise sturgeon at home: in pools and in ponds. Let's consider both of these options.

Swimming pools. For the first time, a novice businessman can purchase an ordinary plastic pool. The dimensions of such a container are: diameter 1.5-2 m, and depth – up to 1 m. The yield of live products (per year) from such a small pool is approximately 1 ton. If you have certain skills, you can make a fish pool yourself. This will reduce the cost of future production, but will require additional time. As production expands, additional pools will need to be purchased (or constructed). In this case, it is necessary to take into account the sizes of containers for various fish categories:

for fish weighing up to 300 g - round-shaped pools with a depth of approximately 0.8 m and a diameter of 1.5 m;
for fish weighing from 300 g to 2 kg - round pools with a depth of 1.2 m and a diameter of 2.2 m;
sorting containers (the larva weighing 0.5-5 g lives in them; sturgeon are sorted here) - rectangular trays with a depth and width of 50 cm and a length of 2.2 m.

But no matter what kind of pool it is, it is necessary to carefully monitor its cleanliness, regularly change the water and clean it, and also maintain a certain temperature of the air in the room and the water in the pool. Sturgeon feels great at temperatures from + 2 to + 27°C, but the best temperature is The regime for intensive growth and reproduction of fish ranges from + 17 to + 22°C. At this temperature, female sturgeon begin to throw caviar from the age of 6 (in nature, the process begins at 12-15 years of life of the fish).

In addition to the pool, for this type of sturgeon breeding you need to additionally purchase filters, a pump, a compressor, automatic feeders (optional, you can feed by hand), pipelines for air and water, nets, etc.

Ponds. If a businessman has an artificial or natural pond on his personal plot, then sturgeon can be bred in it. In this case, you will be able to save significantly on the purchase of equipment.

Before you start using the artificial pond, you need to prepare it. To start from it drain the water completely, clean it and sprinkle the bottom of the pond with lime. The lime is then washed off and the pond is filled with water.

After cleaning, it is necessary to introduce all kinds of mollusks and worms into the artificial reservoir; plant algae and other freshwater plants in the pond. All manipulations must be carried out 1.5-2 months before the expected landing of the fry in the pond. It is best to introduce the fry into the pond in the warm season (late spring or summer).

It is worth thinking about the wintering of sturgeon. To prevent the fish from simply freezing, it is better to send it to pools for the winter, and return it to the pond when it gets warmer.

Feeding the fish

Sturgeon are not very picky eaters. But we must not forget that the rate of increase in sturgeon live weight and their overall health directly depend on how high-quality food the fish eat. The following options are possible when feeding sturgeon:

Feeding with foreign feeds that have a high feed ratio (FC);
Feeding with domestic, “local” feed;
Feeding with homemade food.

Feed adult fish need 4 times a day, and fry - 6 times a day at equal time intervals. It is very important to follow a feeding schedule: if the sturgeon does not feed at the same time, it may even refuse to feed (this is a stressful situation).

High-quality food for sturgeon must include: crude protein (approximately 45-50%), crude fat (20-25%), fiber (3%), lysine, phosphorus and other macro- and microelements.

When choosing food for fish, one should not forget that sturgeon is a bottom dweller, feeding exclusively from the bottom of the reservoir. This means that the food must be heavy enough so that it does not float on the surface of the water, but sinks to the bottom. The food should be quite aromatic, since the sturgeon navigates mostly by smell. The food offered should not fall apart in the water for at least 30 minutes, since all sturgeon are real gourmets who love long meals.

Care and breeding of fry

Sturgeon is an unpretentious fish in terms of keeping conditions. The main care for sturgeon is to adhere to the feeding regime; maintaining cleanliness in the pool (pond); timely sorting of fry and grown fish.

If water is supplied to swimming pools from a tap, it is necessary to prevent residual chlorine from entering the pool. This can be done using an inexpensive carbon filter. The water in the pool is not replaced 100% at a time. A small part of the water is changed no more than once every 3 days (12-15% of the total volume of water in the pool).

The fish are carefully checked every month. Grown-up sturgeon are transferred to another tank, and the fry are left to grow up.

It will not be easy for a novice businessman to start breeding fry at home. Firstly, an adult sturgeon (even under ideal conditions) begins to spawn no earlier than at 6 years of age. And secondly, without knowing all the intricacies of caring for fish, you can get a high mortality rate among fry. Therefore, at the initial stage, it is better to purchase fry from specialized large fish farms.

Profitability

And now the main question that most interests any businessman: what income will the business bring? Is it profitable to grow sturgeon at home?

To get 1 ton of fish for sale, you need to purchase approximately 1,800 fry. The minimum cost of 1 fry is 12 rubles. We will spend 19,800 rubles on all the fry. Feed for the entire growing period must be purchased in the amount of approximately 70,000 thousand rubles. 10,000 and 18,000 thousand rubles will be spent on water and electricity. respectively. It turns out that in order to grow 1 ton of marketable fish, you will need to spend about 120 thousand rubles on its cultivation. That is, the cost of fish (1 kg) is approximately 120 rubles. You can have sturgeon sell to a restaurant, etc. for 500 rubles/kg. Consequently, the net profit comes out to about 380 rubles. from 1 kg. And per year the profit is up to 380 thousand rubles.

Thus, breeding sturgeon at home can become a real Klondike for a novice businessman. Let us once again recall the main stages in creating this business:

selection, purchase and preparation of containers for future fish (pool or pond);
purchase of necessary equipment and feed;
coordinating the opening of a business with veterinarians and the sanitary and epidemiological station;
purchasing fish fry;
careful care of fish and timely cleaning of pools;
obtaining marketable products in the form of 500 grams or more of sturgeon (it is from this weight that the fish can be sold to restaurants and other sales points).

And, of course, the businessman’s insatiable desire to get the results of his work and enormous patience. After all, to paraphrase a well-known proverb: you can’t pull a sturgeon out of a pond without difficulty!

Today, sturgeon caviar does not need advertising to find stable markets. This is a storehouse of useful vitamins and microelements for the human body. Its prices are consistently high, which makes it possible for entrepreneurs who breed fish to receive a constant income. We will devote this article to growing sturgeon at home.

Where to start breeding sturgeon at home?
Technology of fish breeding for caviar
How to earn money faster?
What equipment to choose for a sturgeon farm?

In general, the process of growing sturgeon requires deep knowledge of technology, good equipment, and the desire to devote most of the time to this matter. Recently, innovative technologies have been invented that make the farmer’s work easier, but their implementation requires large investments. Here the decision is made directly by the entrepreneur himself.

Where to start breeding sturgeon at home?

Since usually we are not initially talking about organizing a full-fledged sturgeon farm, one container of water is enough. The depth of such a pool is usually about 1 meter, and the diameter is from 1.5 to 2.5 meters. An entrepreneur has the opportunity to maintain such a pool independently, and about 1 ton of sturgeon can be raised in it per year. In addition to the tank itself, you need to purchase a pump, filter and compressor. They are necessary to ensure aeration and filtration in the pool. To reduce labor costs for caring for fish, you can purchase an automatic feeder. The water temperature should be maintained at +18-20 degrees.

Pools are occupied at the rate of 1 sq.m. area for 60 kg of live fish. The peculiarity of growing sturgeon at home is the difficulty in obtaining fry. For breeding purposes on a small scale they are usually purchased. Sturgeons are fed at the bottom of the reservoir. This satisfies the conditions of their nutrition in the natural environment. At first you can buy food, and over time you can learn to cook it yourself. It must contain precise proportions of proteins, fats, lysine and phosphorus. The fry that are released into the pool weigh no more than 5 grams. They grow unevenly. About 20% of the herd rapidly gain weight, due to which they subsequently “conquer” most of the food for themselves.

Such a small reservoir is suitable for growing sturgeon for sale as a fish delicacy. Sturgeon are grown until they reach 500-600 grams and are sold to wholesalers for sale or to restaurants.

Technology of fish breeding for caviar

Breeding sturgeon for caviar is a longer and more labor-intensive process. In nature, the female begins to produce eggs only at the age of 15. In conditions created by man, this occurs at 5-7 years. You will need at least six pools for growing fish for caviar. They are installed in a separate building or heated greenhouse. Sometimes a basement is adapted for these purposes. Since under natural conditions the sturgeon lives on the bottom, it does not need bright lighting at all.

Experts say that to start a business you need no more than $4,000. Many entrepreneurs are attracted to this amount of investment. But, unfortunately, not many people stay in this business. Sturgeon farming, for the purpose of breeding caviar, frightens businessmen with its long-term nature. If you start with the specified amount and develop the business yourself, then you can achieve full payback only after 10 years. But after this time, the farmer can count on 30% of the net profit from the initial costs. Another feature of the business is that black caviar produced on sturgeon farms is never prohibited by law.

How to earn money faster?

There is a practice of purchasing grown fish or adult specimens. It allows you to reduce the payback time, but also requires large investments in the acquisition of a herd. An adult fish costs about 5 thousand rubles per kilogram, and a three-year-old fish costs 1 thousand rubles. To form a herd that produces 1 ton of caviar, you will need to invest 100 million rubles. In addition, there is a danger of fish dying during transportation and no one can say for sure how it will take root in the new conditions.

What equipment to choose for a sturgeon farm?

One of the new technologies that helps organize the cultivation of sturgeon in a relatively short time is the use of RAS (recirculating water supply units). There are many varieties of such equipment. It differs in the design of the pools and their number, and is intended for growing fish on granulated feed. Typically, round pools are used. Before entering the pool, the water is purified in several stages. It creates a circular motion. The main operating principle of the installation is based on the following processes:

Mechanical cleaning
Biological treatment
Temperature maintenance
Oxygen saturation
Disinfection.

They can be swapped or combined. A prerequisite is to place them in a heated room. Sturgeon farms using RAS are easily automated. This reduces the labor intensity of the sturgeon breeding process, but does not deprive the fish farmer of the responsibility to regularly monitor the stock.

The advantages of equipment with closed water supply installations include:

The ability to create intensive water exchange, oxygenation and powerful filtration. Thanks to this, dense planting of fish is possible.
Saving production space, as the pools are located quite compactly.
Possibility of constant visual control.
Automation of care and feeding processes.
Eliminating the influence of unfavorable natural factors on sturgeon.
Minimizing the causes that contribute to the occurrence of diseases in fish.
Significant savings in water and feed, which reduces production costs.

Compliance with technology and sanitary standards on the farm allows the entrepreneur to grow an environmentally friendly product and confirm this with relevant documents.

The sturgeon breeding business is a promising area in Russia, despite the high risks and long payback period. If there is a clean reservoir and experienced fish farmers, it can be organized in open ponds. Market players claim that it is these components that are most difficult now, so they prefer to organize closed sturgeon farms.

To sell sturgeon caviar today you don’t even need to create active advertising. Due to the abundance of useful vitamins and microelements in it, this product is in great demand among buyers.

The process of breeding sturgeon does not require any special knowledge or skills from you; you just need to purchase good equipment and take a responsible approach to the business. Modern innovative technologies significantly help make life easier for a farmer, and if you invest well in purchasing the necessary equipment, you can save some money on wages for hired workers who will service the farm. In any case, the decision is made by the entrepreneur himself, based on the size of the start-up capital.

Business registration

You need to be prepared for the fact that breeding sturgeon is a troublesome business and there will be no profit at all for about a year and a half. This is due to the long period of growth of the fish and only after it reaches a certain age will the fish begin to work “for you”. Until this point, you should take the time to register an entrepreneur.

To be able to run your own business, you first need to enter your subsidiary farm with the OKVED code of the list of permitted activities into the register and obtain permission from Rosprirodnadzor. After paying the necessary fees and providing documents, the entrepreneur receives the right to conduct a legal business of growing sturgeon and selling it.

Business profitability

Many aspiring entrepreneurs are interested in whether growing sturgeon at home is profitable and whether the business will bring profit. Let's make simple calculations: to get a ton of fish for sale, you need to buy about one and a half thousand fry, the price of each of which is 10-12 rubles.

In total, the cost of purchasing young animals is about 15-20 thousand rubles.
Fish food, lighting and heating costs for the entire period of growing fry will cost about another 100 thousand, so the cost of a kilogram of fish is 120 rubles.
Restaurants and various kinds of shops are ready to purchase sturgeon at different prices (400-500 rubles/kg), so the net profit in the end will be at least 300 rubles.
This is 300 thousand rubles per year if you sell at least 100 kilograms of meat per month.

A novice businessman should be prepared for the fact that sales volumes will be somewhat lower at first, but overall there is room for improvement.

You can hire auxiliary workers for your farm, whose main responsibilities will be monitoring the cleanliness of the water in the pools, cleaning and feeding fish (if this process is not automated), as well as sorting grown fish. If you have a room with an area of up to 30 square meters, it will be used annually you can grow 2-3 tons of sturgeon per year and still spend no more than a couple of hours working every day.

Farm arrangement

The technology for growing sturgeon is relatively simple, but there are several mandatory stages in creating a business:

selection and purchase of containers for growing fish;
purchase of all necessary materials and equipment, purchase of feed;
obtaining permits from veterinarians and sanitary and epidemiological stations;
purchasing sturgeon fry, caring for fish, feeding and cleaning the pond;
sales of products.

Since there is no point in organizing a whole farm to begin with, you can only make a small container with water into which to put the fry. A depth of only a meter is sufficient, and a pool diameter of 2-2.5 meters is suitable.

The entrepreneur gets the opportunity to maintain such a pool on his own, so there is no need to spend money on wages for service personnel and renting a large plot of land for the pool. You can further reduce labor costs by purchasing automatic fish feeders.

Conditions for growing sturgeon involve populating pools at the rate of 1 sq. meter for 50 kg of fish. The main difficulty at the stage of creating a business is that it can be difficult to obtain fry.

Initially, you can buy specialized food, and then learn how to prepare it yourself. A prerequisite is that it must contain a balanced amount of fats, phosphorus, protein and other useful components. As soon as the fry reach a weight of about half a kilogram, they can already be sold to restaurants and stores.

Necessary equipment

First of all, you need to find a room with an area of at least 50 square meters, install electricity, water supply and sewerage. Then buy the following equipment for growing sturgeon:

fish feed dispensers. The best choice is automatic, because they save effort and time on feeding fish;
pumps for pumping water in the pool. They should not work at full capacity, as they break down very quickly. Therefore, it is so important to select them correctly according to technical characteristics;
oxygen generators, which also come in several types and have different prices. They provide vital oxygen to the fish, so you need to invest in these devices;
sterilizers and filters, which will purify the water in the pool from debris, fish waste and particles of uneaten food. This also needs to be given a lot of attention, because dirty water in the pool is a direct road to the death of the entire sturgeon population and financial losses;
measuring instruments which will allow you to control water quality;
incubators for maturing fish eggs and hatching larvae. But here it is important to decide from the very beginning whether the sturgeon will be sold and raised in an incomplete or full cycle. If it is incomplete (fry are purchased and when they reach a certain age they are immediately sold to stores), then an incubator will not be needed.

Feeding the fish is carried out only with high-quality food, because this directly determines how quickly the fish will grow and whether it will be healthy. You can buy expensive foreign brands if the amount of starting capital allows, purchase local food, or prepare it yourself.

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