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Nukus Balyk fish hatchery (Nukus, Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan)
10.04.2025
Large Amu Darya shovelnose sturgeon (Pseudoscaphirhynchus kaufmanni) - (in this video) one specimen of big broadnose form and two specimens of small (dwarf) narrownose form were examined with ultra-sound device to detect their sex and maturity. They were also marked with electronic chips.
Water temperature in the pools was +19 oC
The fish were caught in the downstream of the Amu Darya river in Khanka-Bagat (Bogot) - Pitnak areas (Khorezm province, Uzbekistan).
The ultra-sound device was obtained within the grant provided by the Global Greengrants Fund ( ) in Uzbekistan to the group of ichthyologists who are enthusiastic about conservation of the native rare fishes of the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya rivers drainage basins.
The procedures were conducted by Danil Domrachev (ichthyologist, specialist in fish propagation, practicing fish ultra-sound screening) in online consultations with a number of experienced Russian specialists in ultra-sound screening of sturgeons including Vyacheslav Shebanin, the head of Aleksin sturgeon hatchery (Aleksin, Tula province, Russia) where this ultra-sound device was previousely tested and tuned before it was delivered to Nukus Balyk hatchery as well as Elena Galich, PhD, researcher and a prominent specialist in in ultra-sound screening of sturgeons (State Regional Centre for Sturgeon Gene pool Conservation Ministry of Natural Resources of Krasnodar Region, Russia - )
In 2020 Nukus Balyk fish hatchery (Nukus, Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan) was registered as Amu Darya shovelnose sturgeons propagation hatchery. It provided the Amu Darya shovelnose conservation project () with a recirculating aquaculture system (RAS). Water in the system is refreshed from the Amu Darya river through a canal.
Creating an initial brood stock of Amu Darya shovelnose sturgeons is the first step towards their propagation and conservation efforts.
11-12.04.2025 the monitoring of the initial brood stock (that is currently being formed in Nukus Balyk hatchery) was conducted for the first time.
The monitoring was funded by the Global Greengrants Fund ( ) in Uzbekistan.
It was arranged by Kallybek Primbetov, the director of Nukus Balyk; Alexey Chernyak, curator of the Rarest Eurasian Sturgeon Species Conservation Programme - Eurasian Regional Association of Zoos and Aquariums (EARAZA) - , Alexey is also the Life-on-earth.ru popular science project manager; Danil Domrachev, ichthyologist, specialist in fish propagation, practicing fish ultra-sound examination, Danil is also the administrator of the "How fish farms work" (Kak rabotayut rybkhozy) fish propagation specialists group in Telegram social network as well as a Youtube channel with the same name -
There was also an exchange of experience between the Russian specialists and the hatchery staff during monitoring works.
Ultra-sound screening for detection of sex and maturity is a very important procedure in working with sturgeons brood stocks in hatcheries to select individuals that are ready to spawn and to monitor the development of gonads.
There is very little experience in examining Amu Darya shovelnoses (that are very small sturgeons) with ultra-sound devices. The first and the only case before occured in 2017 in Khorezm Mamun Academy (Khiva, Khorezm province, Uzbekistan) - the related link in Russian:
This time we could not found any fish that was ready to spawn in the Spring of 2025 but we have obtained the additional and very valubale experience and mark the fish with electronic chips to identify them in the future and monitor the dynamics in the development of their gonads year after year using ultra-sound screening. All this allowed us to start a database on initial brood stock of Amu Darya shovelnose sturgeons (Pseudoscaphirhynchus) including video recordings of screen of the ultra-sound device for each individual shovelnose and image interpretation.