Reader question update: Two new sturgeon are now swimming around the 6,000-gallon coldwater aquarium at Cabela’s in Boise.
If you remember, last fall readers asked me where Moose, the 5-foot sturgeon, went.
Moose outgrew the fish tank in Boise and was shipped to the Cabela’s in Lehi, Utah, where there is a 35,000-gallon tank. Store officials say Moose is adapting well to his new environment and is expected to grow to even larger. Sturgeon can live for decades and grow longer than 10 feet.
The new sturgeon kids are about 16 inches long and 18 months old. They came from the College of Southern Idaho fish hatchery. They should be able to stay in the local tank for about six to eight years, depending on their growth rates, said Keith Fitzgerald, Cabela’s retail marketing manager.
The store, at 8109 W. Franklin Road, has two fish tanks — for warmwater fish and coldwater creatures. The young sturgeon are in the coldwater tank.
The tanks are “wow”-getters from kids and adults. They attract 40 to 50 people a day to watch the daily feeding, probably twice that on the weekends or holidays. The fish are fed worms, goldfish and herring.
The sturgeon and other fish really get kids excited, and the tanks are great educational tools.
One of the sturgeon is named Muggsy, but Cabela’s will have customers name the other.
A box to submit names will be at the customer service desk.
By the way, the coldwater tank has rainbow, brook and brown trout and carp, walleye and yellow perch. The warmwater tank has flathead, channel and albino channel catfish, largemouth and smallmouth bass, bluegill, black crappie and more walleye.
Pete Zimowsky: 377-6445, Twitter: @Zimosoutdoors
