Blacktail Redhorse
Moxostoma poecilurum
Lake Chubsucker
Erimyzon sucetta
About
A quiet fish of warm, weedy waters, the lake chubsucker spends its life grazing over sand and silt in still ponds and floodplain lakes, largely out of sight of the fast-water fish around it.
Habitat
Lives in warm, clear, still water across the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basin, from Ontario south to the Gulf of Mexico. It favors wetlands, ponds, and floodplain lakes with heavy plant cover and a bottom of sand or silt mixed with organic debris.
Behaviour
An omnivore, eating algae along with small crustaceans and midge larvae it finds on the bottom. It breeds from late March into early July, and males clear patches of gravel where eggs are scattered, or eggs are spread over vegetation instead. Largemouth bass and other basses prey on it.
Did you know?
Researchers once tested whether this fish could help feed largemouth bass, a popular sportfish, by stocking ponds with it as food. It turned out not to produce enough to support the bass on its own.
Log it in Into the Blue
Describe what you saw and we name it, then keep every species you find in your Oceandex.
