Fish Iowa - Fish Species - Pallid sturgeon

Characteristics

The Pallid Sturgeon, similar in appearance to the Shovelnose Sturgeon, is much lighter in color, has smaller eyes, and a longer and sharper snout. Its inner barbels on the lower surface of the snout are only about half as long, instead of about four-fifths as long, as the outer barbels. Its belly is naked in contrast to the Shovelnose Sturgeon. Maximum size reported for Pallid Sturgeon is 68-pounds.

Foods

Insect larvae, fish, snails, bits of aquatic plants and other litter from the river bottom

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Details

Inclusion of the Pallid Sturgeon in the Mississippi River is based on a single immature fish captured in 1930 near Keokuk. The Missouri Department of Conservation lists the Pallid Sturgeon as exceedingly rare and confined to the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, spreading only a few miles into the Mississippi upstream from the mouth of the Missouri. This species is somewhat more abundant in the Missouri River upstream of Iowa; but nowhere in its range is it common.

The Pallid Sturgeon was not recognized as a distinct species until 1905. Before that, it was included with the shovelnose.

Habitat preference is similar to shovelnose. The fish spawn in the late spring or summer. Males mature at 3 to 4 years of age and females somewhat older. Early growth is similar to that of shovelnose with fish reaching 23.2-inches long at age five in South Dakota.

 

State Record(s)

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