Fish of the Year 2026: The sturgeon wins!

(Photo: Zoltán Sallai)

his time, interested parties could choose from the sjturgeon (Acipenser gueldenstaedtii), the hogfish (Chondrostoma nasus), and the plum-nosed bream (Vimba vimba). Of the 2,462 votes received by 12:00 on December 31, 2025, the bream received more than 45% of the votes, the plum-nosed bream received a little more than 31%, and the hogfish came in third with 24% of the votes.

The sturgeon (Acipenser gueldenstaedtii) is a representative of the ancient-looking sturgeon family that also occurs in our country

Its snout is short, blunt, its whiskers do not reach the upper lip, its body is elongated, and there are large and sharp scales on its sides and back, which are especially noticeable on young specimens. It got its name from these scales, as even a careless movement can be enough to injure a person’s skin. As a migratory fish living in the sea, it used to visit rivers only during the breeding season to scatter its eggs on the open, gravelly riverbed, but the construction of the Iron Gate posed an insurmountable obstacle to its migration route. It is a large fish, and the length of older specimens can exceed two meters. A specimen is found in Hungary from time to time, but these are presumably from planting. It is still regularly caught in fishing nets in some coastal countries, but unlike its cousin, it probably does not have a self-sustaining population in Hungary. Its protection serves the establishment of introduced specimens.