Sacramento sucker
The Sacramento sucker is a species of fish native to the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers in California. These bottom-dwelling fish belong to the family Catostomidae and are characterized by their unique feeding habits, resembling living vacuum cleaners. With horizontal mouths designed for suction, Sacramento suckers primarily feed on a diverse diet that includes insect larvae, worms, fish eggs, and vegetation, making them omnivores. They can grow up to two feet in length and weigh nearly four pounds, displaying a green or brown coloration with yellow bellies.
During the spring, Sacramento suckers migrate upstream to spawn, with females capable of releasing up to 100,000 eggs, which may be fertilized by multiple males. The incubation period for these eggs lasts between two to four weeks. Like all fish, they extract oxygen from water through their gills, highlighting their aquatic adaptations. While the lifespan of Sacramento suckers is not well-documented, related species can live up to 10 years in the wild and as long as 20 years in captivity. Their ecological role and fascinating behaviors make them an interesting species for study within their native habitat.
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Sacramento sucker
Sacramento suckers are named for their geographic location and their interesting eating habits. Sacramento suckers are found in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers of California. They live along the bottoms of these rivers and suck food into their mouths as if they were living vacuum cleaners.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Cypriniformes
Family: Catostomidae
Genus: Catosomus
Species: Occidentalis
Sacramento suckers are one of nearly 30 fish species called suckers in the genus Catosomus. These fish have horizontal mouths and attach to the floor of their habitat. They are bottom-dwellers and live along the bottoms of streams, rivers, and lakes connected with California’s Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers.
Sacramento suckers grow to around two feet (60 centimeters) long and weigh up to four pounds (nearly two kilograms). Their coloring is green or brown with yellow bellies. They have long, streamlined bodies, several fins to help them swim, and thick-lipped mouths designed for sucking food.
Sacramento suckers move through the water because of their many fins. Their caudal, or tail, fins swish from side to side to propel these fish through water, while their dorsal and anal, or back and belly, fins work to keep these fish balanced in the water.
Sacramento suckers have mouths like the ends of vacuum cleaners. Because they suck up everything with which they come in contact, they are not picky eaters. Their diet includes a variety of insect larvae, worms, fish eggs, and vegetation. This kind of meat and plant diet causes Sacramento suckers to be classified as omnivores, or animals that eat meat and plants.
In the spring, Sacramento suckers migrate upstream to spawn, or mate. Sometimes, one female will meet with two or three males for mating. The female releases light golden eggs and two or three males may fertilize them. Sacramento sucker eggs have an incubation period of two to four weeks. An incubation period is the growth period between the fertilizing and hatching of the eggs. Female Sacramento suckers may release up to 100,000 eggs.
Like other fish, Sacramento suckers must have oxygen to survive. Unlike humans, with lungs that can process oxygen from the air, Sacramento suckers must find the oxygen they need from the water. Sacramento suckers take water into their mouths, use the oxygen in the water, and filter the waste chemicals out through the gills on the sides of their heads.
The life span of Sacramento suckers is unknown. Other sucker fish species live up to 10 years in the wild and up to 20 years in captivity.
Bibliography
"Catostomus Occidentalis Ayres, 1854." Fish Base, www.fishbase.se/summary/Catostomus-occidentalis. Accessed 15 Apr. 2024.
"Sacramento Sucker." California Fish Website, University of California, calfish.ucdavis.edu/species/?uid=84&ds=241. Accessed 15 Apr. 2024.