Article text: Wikipedia contributors, Gray redhorse (source revision). Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Retrieved 2026-10-11.
Gray Redhorse
Moxostoma congestum
Catostomidae · freshwater water fish
2 minute read · Species guide

About Gray Redhorse
The gray redhorse (Moxostoma congestum) is a species of freshwater fish in the family Catostomidae. It is found in Mexico and the United States.
Diet and feeding
The FishTraits compilation records these diet categories for this species: aquatic or other vascular plants; 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 medium to large rivers, streams and small rivers.
The source records associations with sand, gravel. An association indicates reported use, rather than an exclusive requirement.
Reproduction and parental care
The compilation reports a representative maturity age of 4 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 (TX). 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 65 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.
Range
Where it lives
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 42 of its sites, in 2 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
- Moxostoma
- Species
- Moxostoma congestum
- ITIS TSN
- 163931
- WoRMS AphiaID
- 1021624
- GBIF key
- 2358988
Common questions about Gray Redhorse
What is the scientific name of Gray Redhorse?
Does Gray Redhorse live in fresh water or salt water?
Where has Gray Redhorse been recorded in the United States?
Closest relatives
Other Moxostoma species
Same family