The desert sucker or Gila Mountain sucker (''Catostomus clarkii''), is a freshwater species of ray-finned

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of ...

in the sucker family,

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

to the Great Basin and the

Colorado River Basin The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. s ...

in the United States. It inhabits rapids and fast-flowing streams with gravelly bottoms. It is a bi-colored fish with the upper parts olive brown to dark green, and the underparts silvery-tan or yellowish. The head is cylindrical, tapering to a thick-lipped mouth on the underside. This fish can grow to in Arizona but is generally only about half this size elsewhere. There are three subspecies, found in different river basins, and some authorities allot this species its own genus ''Pantosteus''.

Description

Desert suckers are bicolored; the back and upper sides are darker, olive-brown to dark green, and the belly and lower sides are deep-yellow to silvery tan. The

scales Scale or scales may refer to: Mathematics * Scale (descriptive set theory), an object defined on a set of points * Scale (ratio), the ratio of a linear dimension of a model to the corresponding dimension of the original * Scale factor, a number w ...

on the upper half of the body have dark spots which form faint dashed lines. Their head is cylindrical, tapering to a blunt face with the lower lip about three times as thick as upper lip. The mouth is on the underside (ventral) of the face and is proportionately large. The

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin located on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates within various taxa of the animal kingdom. Many species of animals possessing dorsal fins are not particularly closely related to each other, though through c ...

of the desert sucker has 10 to 11 rays. The adult lengths range from in smaller streams, but up to in Arizona. Their weight ranges from .

Distribution

The desert sucker is found in Nevada, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. The desert sucker occurs in the lower

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. s ...

basin, below the Grand Canyon, particularly in the Gila River, and above the Grand Canyon in streams in the

Virgin River The Virgin River is a tributary of the Colorado River in the U.S. states of Utah, Nevada, and Arizona. The river is about long.Calculated with Google Maps and Google Earth It was designated Utah's first wild and scenic river in 2009, during the ...

basin, the White River basin and others. The total range area of the desert sucker is estimated at .

Habitat

Desert suckers prefer ripply waters, rapids and flowing streams with gravelly bottoms.

Reproduction

Desert suckers reach maturity in their second year. Spawning occurs in winter and spring from January through May.

Subspecies

Three subspecies have been identified: the White River desert sucker, ''Catostomus clarkii intermedius'' (sometimes known as White River mountain sucker, ''Pantosteus intermedius''),Clarkson and Minckley (1988) Virgin River desert sucker, ''Catostomus clarkii utahensis'', and the Meadow Valley Wash desert sucker, ''Catostomus clarkii (unnamed)''. Some ichthyologists regarded these as members of the genus ''Pantosteus'', but later authors regard ''Pantosteus'' as a subgenus of ''Catostomus''. There are suggestions of hybridization between ''Catostomus clarkii'' and ''Catostomus insignis''.

Notes

References

* Lee, David S. ''et al.'' (1980) ''Atlas of North American Freshwater Fishes'' North Carolina State Museum of Natural History, Patricia Ledlie Bookseller Inc, * Clarkson, Robert W. and Minckley, W. L. (1988) "Morphology and foods of Arizona catostomid Fishes: ''Catostomus insignis'', ''Pantosteus clarki'', and their putative hybrids" ''Copeia'' 1988: pp. 422–433 * Sublette, James E.; Hatch, Michael D. and Sublette, Mary (1990) "''Catostomus (Pantosteus) clarki'' Baird and Girard - desert sucker" ''The Fishes of New Mexico'' University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, pp. 205–207, * Smith, G. R. 1992. "Phylogeny and biogeography of the Catostomidae, freshwater fishes of North America and Asia" Pages 778-826 ''In'' Mayden, R. L. (ed.) (1992) ''Systematics, historical ecology, and North American freshwater fishes'' Stanford Univ. Press, Stanford, California,

External links

"''Catostomus clarkii''" ITIS

Fishbase

"''Catostomus clarkii''" NatureServe
search with "''Catostomus clarkii''" as search term. {{Taxonbar, from=Q2712430

Desert sucker The desert sucker or Gila Mountain sucker (''Catostomus clarkii''), is a freshwater species of ray-finned fish in the sucker family, endemic to the Great Basin and the Colorado River Basin in the United States. It inhabits rapids and fast-fl ...

Endemic fauna of the United States Fish of the Western United States Freshwater fish of the United States Fauna of the Southwestern United States Fauna of the Great Basin Fauna of the Mojave Desert Fauna of the Lower Colorado River Valley Taxa named by Spencer Fullerton Baird Taxa named by Charles Frédéric Girard Fish described in 1854 Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN