Beluga is the fish that is the largestpredator of all living in the reservoirs with fresh water. According to historical data, in the old days there were specimens weighing 1.6 tons. Now individual individuals reach 1.2 tons. Scientists suggest that the beluga can live more than a hundred years. At the same time, the longest officially recorded lifespan of these sturgeon species was 46 years. As of the 70s of the last century, the average length of females that were caught on the Volga was 267 cm, and weight - 142 kg. Similar indicators for males were 221 cm and 81 kg, respectively. In addition, the fish differs from other species with its sharp short nose and a thick cylindrical body. A massive lip surrounds a huge mouth, stretching all over the width of a head of a species such as the beluga. Fish, the photo of which is located below, due to this expression "face" has the nickname "sad". It refers to transitional species and leads a different lifestyle in large rivers. For example, in the Volga River, the winter variety predominates, which spends the winter in the pits, while in the Urals most of the migrating for spawning individuals are spring.
Habitat
Archaeological evidence suggests thatthe beluga fish met in the basins of the Adriatic, Black, Caspian and Azov Seas and rose to the mouths of such rivers as the Volga, Kama, Oka, Sheksna and many others. There are notes on the catch of individual specimens of this species in the Moscow River. Now the habitat is limited approximately to the lower dams of the hydroelectric power station. As for the Azov Sea, then it has already disappeared. Despite everything, the beluga is a fish that can swim very far. Among scientists there is an opinion that this distance depends on the size of a particular individual, and the more it is, the further it spawns. There are cases when individual specimens reach the Mediterranean, Adriatic and Black seas. According to historical data, in 1850 the beluga was caught in the vicinity of the Italian city of Venice.
Food
Beluga is a fish that begins to hunt in the river yetbeing a fry. At this time, she is mainly interested in small shells with a thin shell, so the young is most concentrated in the estuaries of rivers. By eating beluga in the sea usually become bulls, tulks, sprat, pike perch, herring, mollusks and other inhabitants. In the stomachs of some of the fish caught in the Caspian Sea, even the seal pups were found. Do not disdain the beluga eating its own juveniles and other varieties of sturgeon.
Reproduction
Males are ready to breed at the age of abouttwelve years, while females, even later - at sixteen. Beluga is a fish that spawns at the peak of floods. The water temperature at the initial stage is 6-7 degrees. For the deposition of caviar you need a rocky, deep place (from 4 to 15 meters) with a fairly rapid current. Each individual female, depending on its size can postpone from 200 thousand to 8 million eggs. Their embryonic period lasts about 200 hours, provided that the water has a temperature of about 12 degrees. As mature fish, and the young immediately after spawning fall into the sea, without lingering in the river. One can not but note the fact that reproduction does not happen every year.
