Egg lipid and thiamine vary between early and late spawning lake sturgeon

Summary Nutritional deficiency associated with reduced thiamine (vitamin B1) and reduced natural reproduction of salmonid species in the Great Lake Region is well established. The negative relationship between egg thiamine and lipid concentration to post‐hatch larval growth and survival in teleost species, coupled with the limited research of egg thiamine in Acipenseriform species of conservation concern, including lake sturgeon, indicates that study of thiamine concentrations lake sturgeon eggs is warranted. Eggs were collected from females (N = 12) during the early and late portion of the spawning run in 2007 in a wild population from Black Lake, MI. Concentrations of thiamine, lipid and fatty acid concentration were measured along with female biological information (body size and egg size) and characteristics of larvae at hatch. Significant differences in egg thiamine concentrations were observed between early‐ and late‐spawning females (mean ± SD: 2.36 nmol·g−1 ± 1.09 vs. 0.73 ± 0.25 nmol·g−1, W = 0.05, p