Roanoke Hog Sucker: Facts & Habitat

About Roanoke Hog Sucker

The Roanoke hogsucker (Hypentelium roanokense) is a freshwater ray-finned fish found in the upper and middle Roanoke River basin in North Carolina and Virginia. It is very similar to and lives in the same area as the northern hogsucker. They are in the sucker family, Catostomidae. They are not considered a game fish and are considered significantly rare due to their limited distribution.

Native and introducedFresh2 states

Description

The Roanoke hogsucker can grow to a maximum length of 16 cm. It has a body shape similar to the other hogsuckers, with a boxy head, protruding lips, and dark saddles. The Roanoke hogsucker is often mistaken for the northern hogsucker, but can be distinguished by four features: it has light horizontal lines on its back and sides, poorly developed dark saddles between its head and dorsal fin, 41 scales on its lateral line, and 31 pectoral fin rays.

Taxonomy

The species was first described in 1947 by Edward Cowden Raney and Ernest A. Lachner.

Distribution and habitat

The Roanoke hogsucker is indigenous to the Dan River subdrainage of the upper and middle Roanoke River Basin in North Carolina and Virginia. They have been found in several small tributaries of the Ararat River in the upper Yadkin-Pee Dee River system in North Carolina and Virginia but is believed to have been introduced there from bait buckets.

The Roanoke hogsucker is well adapted to many environments and can be found typically on the bottom throughout its fresh water river ecosystem. It is found in cool and warm streams. It can be found in fast flowing rocky streams and sandy silty bottom pools.

Diet

The Roanoke hogsucker eats small crustaceans, insect larvae (mostly fly larvae), and vegetation on rocks.

Reproduction

The Roanoke hogsucker's life cycle and reproduction have not been fully studied. Males are reproductively mature after one or two years and typically live for four years. Females mature in three years and typically live for five years. Spawning occurs early to mid-spring. Very little is known about their breeding habits.

Human interest

The Roanoke hogsucker is often found in the same areas as bass but is not considered a game fish. It is considered "significantly rare" by the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program because of its limited distribution. It poses no threat to humans. The populations are in no immediate danger but could be quickly harmed if the habitat they live in is not protected from human damage.

Article text: Wikipedia contributors, Roanoke hogsucker (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, creeks.

The source records associations with clay or silt, sand, gravel, cobble. 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 (VA). 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 14 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.

Identification and appearance

Hypentelium roanokense is superficially similar to the two other species of Hypentelium, but can generally be distinguished by a combination of color pattern and counts of lateral line scales and pectoral fin elements (Page and Burr 2011).

Native range

Endemic to the middle and upper Roanoke-Dan River system, North Carolina and Virginia (Raney and Lachner 1947; Page and Burr 2011)

Introduction history

Likely bait bucket introduction (Tracy et al. 2013).

Range

Where it lives

64%of mapped records

Share of 419 GBIF observation records with a state location, across 2 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 64 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: Undetermined
Pattern: Potamodromous — migrates within fresh water
Disagreement: 2 published references do not agree on the pattern: Non-migratory, Potamodromous. The site shows every assignment rather than picking one.

Classification

Taxonomy

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Superclass: Actinopterygii
Class: Teleostei
Order: Cypriniformes
Family: Catostomidae
Genus: Hypentelium
Species: Hypentelium roanokense
ITIS TSN: 163951
WoRMS AphiaID: 1014349
GBIF key: 2358930

Common questions about Roanoke Hog Sucker

What is the scientific name of Roanoke Hog Sucker?

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

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

WoRMS records this species in fresh water.

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

GBIF has observations in 2 states, with the most records in Virginia, North Carolina. The map shows observation records, which do not establish the complete natural range.

Closest relatives