Catostomus macrocheilus
Largescale Sucker
NS
G5
Taxonomic Hierarchy
Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes)
Cypriniformes (Carps and Minnows)
Catostomidae (Suckers)
Catostomus
Catostomus macrocheilus (Largescale Sucker)
Description
This species account was compiled from
FishBase (Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2025. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication. www.fishbase.org, version 04/2025.)
and processed using AI-assisted text extraction.
It may contain errors in spelling, punctuation, or formatting.
When citing, please reference the original source rather than this page.
Learn more about our species accounts.
Characters
Body shape: elongated.
Distribution
North America: Arctic basin in Canada from Peace River drainage in British Columbia to Smokey River drainage in Alberta; Pacific Slope from Nass River in British Columbia to Snake River drainage (below Shoshone Falls) in Idaho and Nevada, USA, and Coquille River in Oregon, USA.
Habitat Associations
Freshwater. demersal. depth range 1-80 m. Found in: streams, lakes.
Biology
Occurs in pools and runs of medium to large rivers. Also found in lakes. Pelagic up to 1.8 cm in length (Ref. 1998). Young feed on planktonic cladocerans, copepods, ostracods, and mites; chironomid, trichopteran and ephemeropteran larvae; and bottom ooze (Ref. 1998). Adults feed on algae, diatoms, insects, amphipods, and mollusks (Ref. 1998). May feed on salmonid eggs (Ref. 1998). Preyed upon by mergansers, osprey, eagles, and bears (Ref. 1998). Edible but not highly favored (Ref. 1998).
Max length: 61.0 cm TL; common length: 25.0 cm TL; max age: 15 years.
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2011-10-27. Resilience: Low (tmax=15).
Commercial or Environmental Importance
Fisheries: commercial; aquarium: public aquariums.
References
Scott, W.B. and E.J. Crossman (1973) Freshwater fishes of Canada. Bull. Fish. Res. Board Can. 184: xi+1-966.
Page, L.M. and B.M. Burr (1991) A field guide to freshwater fishes of North America north of Mexico. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. 432 p.
Comments On Catostomus macrocheilus