A Virtual Museum on the State's Fish Biodiversity

Sander canadensis

Sauger
NS G5 NS SNA
Collection Details

Specimens

Photos

Records

Browse records associated with this taxon

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes) Perciformes (Perciformes, Also Called the Acanthopteri) Percidae (Perches) Sander Sander canadensis (Sauger)

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: St. Lawrence-Great Lakes, Hudson Bay, and Mississippi River basins from Quebec to Alberta in Canada, and south to northern Alabama and Louisiana in the USA. Introduced into Atlantic, Gulf and southern Mississippi River drainages.

Habitat Associations

Freshwater. demersal. Found in: streams, lakes.

Biology

Inhabits sand and gravel runs, sandy and muddy pools and backwaters of small to large rivers (Ref. 86798). Less frequent in lake and impoundments (Ref. 86798). Larvae feed on cladocerans, copepods, and midge larvae, while juveniles consume fishes (Ref. 10294). Spawn between March and June (Ref. 10999) in pairs or small aggregations (Ref. 11003).
Max length: 76.0 cm TL; common length: 35.8 cm TL; max weight: 3960 g; max age: 18 years.
Reproductive mode: dioecism; fertilization: external; nonguarders (open water/substratum egg scatterers); parental care: none.
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2012-03-01. Resilience: Medium (K=0.23; tmax=7).

Commercial or Environmental Importance

Fisheries: subsistence fisheries; gamefish.

References

Scott, W.B. and E.J. Crossman (1973) Freshwater fishes of Canada. Bull. Fish. Res. Board Can. 184: xi+1-966.
Collette, B.B., M.A. Ali, K.E.F. Hokanson, M. Nagiec, S.A. Smirnov, J.E. Thorpe, A.H. Weatherly and J. Willemsen (1977) Biology of the percids. J. Fish. Res. Board Can. 34(10):1891-1899.
Balon, E.K. (1975) Reproductive guilds of fishes: a proposal and definition. J. Fish. Res. Board Can. 32(6):821-864.
Page, L.M. and B.M. Burr (2011) A field guide to freshwater fishes of North America north of Mexico. Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 663p.

Comments On Sander canadensis

No comments have been posted yet.