A sturgeon can grow truly enormous—up to about 23–26 feet (around 7–8 meters) long and well over 1,500–2,000 pounds in extreme cases, depending on the species.

Quick Scoop: Just How Big?

  • Many adult sturgeon species commonly reach 7–12 feet in length and around 400–800 pounds.
  • Some species, like the white sturgeon in North America, can approach 20 feet, though fish over 10–12 feet are now considered very large.
  • Lake sturgeon and Gulf/Atlantic sturgeon more typically top out around 6–8 feet and a few hundred pounds.

Record-sized giants

  • The largest reliably recorded sturgeon was a beluga sturgeon female from the Volga Delta in 1827, measuring about 7.2 m (23 ft 7 in) and weighing 1,571 kg (3,463 lb).
  • Beluga sturgeon in the Caspian Sea have reportedly reached over 5.5 m (18 ft) and more than 2,000 kg (4,400 lb), and the closely related kaluga has similar reported sizes.
  • These outliers are extremely rare today because of overfishing and habitat loss.

Typical big sturgeons you might hear about

  • White sturgeon: North America’s largest freshwater fish; can reach up to about 20 feet, but modern large individuals are more in the 10–12 foot range.
  • Lake sturgeon: Often cited as growing “over eight feet” and up to roughly 800 pounds in ideal conditions.
  • Gulf and Atlantic sturgeon: Usually 6–8 feet and up to 200–300 pounds.

If you imagine a fish as long as a school bus and heavier than a small car, you’re in the right ballpark for the very biggest sturgeon ever reported.

SEO-style meta description:
Sturgeon are ancient, giant fish that can commonly reach 7–12 feet, with rare record beluga sturgeon exceeding 23 feet and over 3,400 pounds, making them some of the largest fish on Earth.

TL;DR:
Most big sturgeon run 7–12 feet, but the biggest beluga sturgeon on record hit about 23 feet and over 3,400 pounds—one of the largest fish ever documented.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.