Eastern Creek Chubsucker
Erimyzon oblongus
Blacktail Redhorse
Moxostoma poecilurum
About
This southern river fish carries its name in its tail: a bold black stripe across the lower half of a bright red caudal fin, set against a body that shines gold and silver-green.
How to tell it apart
The black stripe running along the lower half of the tail fin, which gives the species its name, is the clearest mark separating it from other redhorse species sharing the same rivers.
Appearance
A long, cylindrical fish, gold to bronze on top with a silver-green shine, fading to silvery yellow or white below. The tail and lower fins are red, and the tail is forked with a larger lower lobe. The dorsal fin has a slightly concave edge, dusky grey below and more red above.
Habitat
Lives in small to medium streams and rivers of the southeastern United States, from Kentucky and Arkansas south to the Gulf coast and west to Texas. It favors sandy and rocky pools, runs, and riffles, and can also turn up in reservoirs and swamps.
Behaviour
A bottom feeder, eating detritus, diatoms, and small invertebrates such as insect larvae and microcrustaceans. It spawns on rocky shoals in spring, when small groups of two to three males gather around a single female. In colder months, adults migrate downstream into deeper water.
Did you know?
This fish has an official world-record catch on the books, landed by an angler on the Tallapoosa River in Alabama.
Log it in Into the Blue
Describe what you saw and we name it, then keep every species you find in your Oceandex.
