The Bear Lake sculpin is a benthic fish and feeds on invertebrates. It is an important forage species for the native Bear Lake strain of Bonneville cutthroat trout and the nonnative Lake trout in Bear lake.
The species spawns between the months of April and May among rocks close to shore, and is listed as a Wildlife Species of Concern by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.
Article text: Wikipedia contributors, Bear Lake sculpin (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: 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 still-water habitats.
The source records associations with gravel, cobble, boulders. An association indicates reported use, rather than an exclusive requirement.
Reproduction and parental care
The compilation reports a representative maturity age of 2 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 Apr, May for the source’s reporting region (UT). This is a regional calendar, not a range-wide schedule.
The reproductive-guild classification includes guarding eggs or young at a spawning substrate or nest.
Size and recorded longevity
FishTraits reports a maximum total length of 10 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 5 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
Bear Lake, Utah and Idaho (Page and Burr 1991).
Habitat and ecology
Bear Lake Sculpin are small (generally less than 90 mm TL) cottids endemic to Bear Lake, and are one of the most abundant fishes in the lake. They occur throughout the lake, with adults spawing in littoral areas on rocky substrate, and juveniles found throughout the lake in benthic habitats (to 50 m depth) (Sigler and Sigler 1996; Ruzycki et al. 1998). The are benthic carnivores, primarily consuming zooplankton and benthic invertebrates. Juveniles occuring in the deeper profundal portion of the lake perform diel vertical migrations to warmer, shallower waters at night, an adaptation to speed digestion (Wurtsbaugh and Neverman 1988).
Introduction history
Intentionally stocked into Flaming Gorge Reservoir (Sigler and Sigler 1987, 1996), apparently to serve as forage for large predatory fish species.
