Sonora Sucker: Facts & Habitat

About Sonora Sucker

The Sonora Sucker (or Gila Sucker), Catostomus insignis, is a medium-sized catostomid fish with 16 other species in the genus scattered throughout North America. This species is remarkably similar in appearance to the Yaqui Sucker (C. bernardini).

NativeFresh5 states

Description

Sonora suckers have a fusiform body, with large heads and chubby figures. They have generally large lower lips, with no fleshy lobes. Sonora suckers have unique square dorsal fins, and relatively large scales (but fewer than most fish in the genus Catostomus). Their coloration is distinctly bi-colored, with a yellow underside and brownish dorsal side. Each scale has discrete outlines to form a definite spot. Adults can reach a length of 80 cm (31.5 in), and can weigh about 2 kg (4.4 lb).

Range

The Sonora sucker occurs mainly in New Mexico and Arizona, also in northern Sonora, Mexico. This species is most prevalent in the Gila and Bill Williams river basins in Arizona, and common in the Gila and San Francisco drainages in New Mexico.

Habitat

The Sonora sucker can live in an array of habitats, varying from trout streams to warm water rivers. However, these fish prefer rocky, relatively deep, and quiet waters. During daylight, adult Sonora suckers tend to take cover and stay in the shade.

Diet

The Sonora sucker's main diet consists of tiny crustaceans, protozoans, and macroinvertebrates. Adult fish are omnivorous, and feed in the early morning and late evening.

Reproduction

Two males usually follow a female Sonora sucker during breeding season. Females lay their eggs in riffles, or a patch of waves or ripples, and are incubated in the spaces between gravel. Females tend to deposit eggs in smaller streams, while few spawn in lakes. Spawning starts late in the winter and goes on until midsummer.

Biology

Sonora suckers are often described as a very sedentary species even during rough seasonal changes and major floods. However, due to a high level of predation by the Flathead catfish (Pylodictis olivaris) in the Salt River Canyon, Sonora suckers are almost completely absent in the area.

Conservation

Construction of reservoirs has greatly depleted the available habitat for the Sonora sucker. Excessive sand deposition in streams caused by watershed erosion has also affected the sucker's habitat. Two Arizona Game and Fish Departments have taken protective measures by undergoing studies that document the current population dynamics of the fish in two central Arizona rivers (Lower Salt and Lower Verde Rivers). The studies are used to increase awareness of the fish in the area and develop management plans.

Article text: Wikipedia contributors, Sonora 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 medium to large rivers, streams and small rivers.

The source records associations with clay or silt, sand, gravel, cobble, bedrock, organic debris. 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.

Batch or serial spawning has been reported somewhere in the species’ range. This does not establish the same spawning pattern for every population.

Recorded spawning months are Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul for the source’s reporting region (NM). 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 80 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 8 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

57.3%of mapped records

Share of 1,703 GBIF observation records with a state location, across 5 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 73 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.
Migration: Migratory
Pattern: Potamodromous — migrates within fresh water

Classification

Taxonomy

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Superclass: Actinopterygii
Class: Teleostei
Order: Cypriniformes
Family: Catostomidae
Genus: Catostomus
Species: Catostomus insignis
ITIS TSN: 163905
WoRMS AphiaID: 1021579
GBIF key: 2359042
Outside the US: ITIS also files it in Mexico.

Common questions about Sonora Sucker

What is the scientific name of Sonora Sucker?

The scientific name is Catostomus insignis, in the family Catostomidae. Classification follows ITIS.

Does Sonora Sucker live in fresh water or salt water?

WoRMS records this species in fresh water.

Where has Sonora Sucker been recorded in the United States?

GBIF has observations in 5 states, with the most records in New Mexico, Arizona, Arkansas. The map shows observation records, which do not establish the complete natural range.

Closest relatives