The longnose sucker (''Catostomus catostomus'') is a
species of
cypriniform freshwater fish in the
family Catostomidae. It is native to
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
from the northern
United States to the top of the continent. It is also found in
Russia in rivers of eastern
Siberia, and thus one of only two species of sucker native to Asia (the other is the Chinese ''
Myxocyprinus asiaticus'').
Description
The body of the longnose sucker is long and round with dark olive or grey sides and top and a light underside. They are up to in
total length and weigh up to .
Longnose suckers are easily confused with
white suckers
The white sucker (''Catostomus commersonii)'' is a species of freshwater cypriniform fish inhabiting the upper Midwest and Northeast in North America, but it is also found as far south as Georgia and as far west as New Mexico. The fish is commonl ...
(''Catostomus commersoni''), which appear very similar. However, longnose suckers can be distinguished by their comparatively finer scales.
Distribution and ecology
The longnose sucker inhabits cold, clear waters, including lakes, pools, rivers and streams, and occasionally also
brackish waters. In North America, it ranges north from the
Columbia
Columbia may refer to:
* Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America
Places North America Natural features
* Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region in ...
,
Delaware,
Missouri and
Monongahela river basins, as well as the
Great Lakes basin.
[ The Russian population, which sometimes is referred to as the Siberian sucker (''C. c. rostratus''), is found in the Yana, ]Indigirka
The Indigirka ( rus, Индиги́рка, r=; sah, Индигиир, translit=Indigiir) is a river in the Sakha Republic in Russia between the Yana (river), Yana to the west and the Kolyma River, Kolyma to the east. It is long. The area of its ...
, Alazeya and Kolyma
Kolyma (russian: Колыма́, ) is a region located in the Russian Far East. It is bounded to the north by the East Siberian Sea and the Arctic Ocean, and by the Sea of Okhotsk to the south. The region gets its name from the Kolyma River an ...
river basins.
It is a bottom-feeding fish, eating aquatic plants
Aquatic plants are plants that have adapted to living in aquatic environments (saltwater or freshwater). They are also referred to as hydrophytes or macrophytes to distinguish them from algae and other microphytes. A macrophyte is a plant that ...
, algae
Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from unicellular mic ...
, and small invertebrates. They are preyed upon by larger predatory fish, such as bass
Bass or Basses may refer to:
Fish
* Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species
Music
* Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range:
** Bass (instrument), including:
** Acoustic bass gui ...
, walleye, trout, northern pike, muskellunge and burbot.
Relationship with humans
They are fished for game and food and also used as bait to catch the larger predators. The International Game Fish Association (IGFA) world record sits at taken from the St. Joseph River in Michigan on December 2, 1989 by angler Ben Knoll.
References
External links
*
*
*
{{Taxonbar, from=Q276321
Catostomus
Freshwater fish of the Arctic
Freshwater fish of the United States
Fish of the Great Lakes
Taxa named by Johann Reinhold Forster
Fish described in 1773