<< On the other hand, have you ever asked any of the local pet shops if they
could order you some?
>>
NC is very anal about selling any sturgeon that could escape into our rivers
and possibly mate with nonexistent local sturgeon and or compete with local
sturgeon for habitat. In other words petshops cannot even sell the European
sterlet which is for sale everywhere else in the country and not really
suited for aquariums anyway because it's brackish, needs cooler temps,
doesn't adapt well to confinement, and is imported from Europe. Even our own
government mentions that the shovelnose sturgeon is suitable for home
aquariums <A HREF="http://wwwaux.cerc.cr.usgs.gov/MICRA/SHOVELNO.HTM">
Shovelnose sturgeon</A> but the only one available is the European sterlet. I
had at one time intended to by several shovelnose sturgeon and sell them to
local petshops and maybe on the Internet and I may still do the Internet
thing but local is out of the question. I even thought of buying local
sturgeon fingerlings but since they are endangered that is out of the
question as well. Of course local government can release flathead, blue, and
channel catfish into the greenswamp and destroy the local ecology but God
help us if a sturgeon were to get loose. Actually the European sterlet would
or could be a problem since it lives in salt water as well as fresh it could
spread all up and down the East coast. but the shovelnose (which cannot
interbreed with local sturgeon, I checked) if it were to be released and
become established would be confined to a local river because it cannot
endure salt water. Actually due to 3 local sturgeon species not being able to
make it due to dams, locks, pollution, and overfishing it would almost seem a
blessing (miracle) if the shovelnose did become established but that's not
for me to decide. obviously i have some issues to resolve here ;-)
Moon
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