Acipenser nudiventris Lovetzky,1828

Description: snout moderately long and pointed at tip. Lower lip continuous. not interrupted at centre, barbels fringed, halfway between tip of snout and mouth, reaching the latter. Gillrakers 24-42. Dorsal finrays 45-57; anal finrays 23-37. Five rows of scutes, dorsal 11-17, lateral (49) 52-73, but usually 55-56 on each side. ventral (10) 12-16, with no smaller plates between dorsal and ventral rows.

Color: back grey, flanks lighter, belly white.

Size: to 200 cm or more.

Habitat: on bottom over mud, near shore at 30-60 m; solitary because rare; little studied in the Black Sea.

Food: mainly molluscs, also amphipods and chironornid larvae (Sea of Azov).

Reproduction: enters rivers from March to May and in October/November, spawning from end of April to June (end of May in Rioni River, Black Sea).