Alabama Hog Sucker: Facts & Habitat

About Alabama Hog Sucker

The Alabama hog sucker (Hypentelium etowanum) is a species of fish in the family Catostomidae, the suckers. It is native to several river systems in the southeastern United States. Its range includes much of the state of Alabama and extends into parts of Mississippi, Tennessee, and Georgia.

Native and introducedFresh6 states

Description

This fish grows up to 23 centimeters in length. It has dark bars along its back, horizontal pale stripes, and orange fins.

Taxonomy

This is one of three species in the genus Hypentelium. Hypentelium roanokense inhabits the Atlantic slope. There is a historical connection of the Tennessee River with the Mobile Basin, suggesting a closer sister relationship between Hypentelium nigricans and H. etowanum.

Distribution

The fish lives in the Chattahoochee River and Mobile Bay drainages and nearby creeks. The species was named for the Etowah River of Georgia.

Biology and ecology

This species lives in clear water on rocky and gravelly substrates in riffles, creeks, and streams.

It feeds on bottomdwelling life by rummaging through rocks with its bony head, long snout, and sucker mouth. A diet analysis showed that 90.6% of the contents in their stomachs were Diptera, with Chironomidae larvae making up 88.8% of all food items.

This species likely has a lifespan of over five years. Sexual maturity is attained around three years of age or at a length around 110 millimeters. It grows in size and weight most rapidly in spring due to increased feeding spurred by the impending spawning season. It spawns over gravel in pools and riffles. Typically when spawning, one female is flanked on each side by two males. Once eggs are released and fertilized there is no parental care invested and they hatch after ten days.

Conservation and management

This species is not considered to be threatened or endangered. It has a limited range but the population is relatively large and stable and divided into many subpopulations. There are no major threats. It is considered to be a common fish in its range.

Article text: Wikipedia contributors, Alabama hog sucker (source revision). Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Retrieved 2026-10-11.

Diet and feeding

The FishTraits compilation records these diet categories for this species: algae or phytoplankton; detritus or unidentified plant material; invertebrates or larval fish. These are broad categories, not a claim that every individual consumes every example in a category.

Reported feeding positions include bottom feeding. The compilation combines published observations; diets can vary with age, locality, and available food.

Habitat preferences

Reported habitat associations include streams and small rivers.

The source records associations with gravel, cobble, boulders, bedrock. An association indicates reported use, rather than an exclusive requirement.

Reproduction and parental care

The compilation reports a representative maturity age of 3 years. Its maturity field summarizes mean, median, or modal estimates, usually for females; male estimates can be used when female data are unavailable. It is not a fixed age at which every fish first breeds.

Recorded spawning months are Mar, Apr for the source’s reporting region (TN). This is a regional calendar, not a range-wide schedule.

The reproductive-guild classification includes spawning on open substrates without guarding the brood.

Size and recorded longevity

FishTraits reports a maximum total length of 23 centimetres. Some entries use an estimated asymptotic length; this value should not be treated as a certified record catch.

Recorded longevity in the compilation is 6 years. Wild observations were preferred, but captive records were accepted where wild records were unavailable, and unspecified records were assumed wild. The value is not a guaranteed wild lifespan or an aquarium life expectancy.

Native range

Chattahoochee River and Mobile Bay drainages in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and southeastern Tennessee (Page and Burr 1991).

Introduction history

"Inadvertent" (Etnier and Starnes 1993).

Range

Where it lives

66.1%of mapped records

Share of 3,905 GBIF observation records with a state location, across 6 states. The orange dots are USGS stream-survey sites where this species was caught.

A blank area on the dot layer usually means nobody sampled there, not that the fish is absent. Turn on “every survey site” to see where the survey looked.

Share of records by state

The USGS stream survey caught it at 112 of its sites, in 3 states. That survey and the GBIF records are two different counts of two different things, so the site keeps them apart.

Habitat

Water and movement

Water: WoRMS records this species in fresh water.
USGS NAS habitat: Freshwater
US status: Native transplant — native to part of the United States, moved to other waters inside it.
Migration: Migratory
Pattern: Potamodromous — migrates within fresh water

Classification

Taxonomy

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Superclass: Actinopterygii
Class: Teleostei
Order: Cypriniformes
Family: Catostomidae
Genus: Hypentelium
Species: Hypentelium etowanum
ITIS TSN: 163950
WoRMS AphiaID: 1214760
GBIF key: 2358934

Common questions about Alabama Hog Sucker

What is the scientific name of Alabama Hog Sucker?

The scientific name is Hypentelium etowanum, in the family Catostomidae. Classification follows ITIS.

Does Alabama Hog Sucker live in fresh water or salt water?

WoRMS records this species in fresh water.

Where has Alabama Hog Sucker been recorded in the United States?

GBIF has observations in 6 states, with the most records in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi. The map shows observation records, which do not establish the complete natural range.

Closest relatives