“…Levels of basal cortisol in serum, in this study were similar to other previous studies on sturgeons, such as in Scaphirhynchus albus , Acipenser medirostris , Acipenser oxyrinchus , Polyodon spathula and H. huso (Barton, Rahn, Feist, Bollig & Schreck ; Barton, Bollig, Hauskins & Jansen ; Lankford, Adams & Cech ; Baker, Wood, Litvak & Kieffer ; Webb, Allert, Kappenman, Marcos, Feist, Schreck & Shackleton ; Hoseini, Hosseini & Nodeh ; Yousefi, Abtahi & Kenari ). However, basal levels in this study were considerably lower than those of previous studies on the same species (Kamangar, Rasaee, Amiri, Abtahi & Bahmani ; 35 ng mL −1 ; Hajirezaee, Rafiee & Hushangi ; 100 ng mL −1 ; Falahatkar, Akhavan et al . ; 10 ng mL −1 ; Falahatkar, Poursaeid, Efatpanah, Meknatkhah & Biswas ; 18–45 ng mL −1 ).…”