Utah Sucker

Diet and feeding

The FishTraits compilation records these diet categories for this species: algae or phytoplankton; 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, creeks, still-water habitats.

The source records associations with clay or silt, sand, gravel, cobble, vegetation. An association indicates reported use, rather than an exclusive requirement.

Reproduction and parental care

The compilation reports a representative maturity age of 2.5 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 Jun, Jul for the source’s reporting region (UT). 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 11 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.

Spawning movements

The compilation records significant spawning-related movement. Its combined migration flag covers movements within fresh water as well as between rivers and the sea; this flag alone does not establish which migration pattern applies.

Native range

Lake Bonneville basin in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Nevada and the Snake River above Shoshone Falls (Sigler and Sigler 1987, 1996).

Habitat and ecology

Utah Suckers are found in a variety of habitat types and thermal regimes throughout their range, including shallow, seasonally warm streams and deep, cold reservoirs and lakes. They are benthic grazers, primarily consuming algae. Spawing occurs in spring over shallow gravel or sandy areas of small streams or lakeshores (Sigler and Sigler 1996).

Introduction history

Probably introduced to the Colorado River drainage via bait bucket (Sigler and Sigler 1996). Means of introduction in Montana unknown.

Ecological impacts

The primary cause of declines of flannelmouth suckers in Wyoming is the risk of genetic introgression with widely distributed non-native suckers (Bezzerides and Bestgen 2002; McDonald et al. 2008). Hybridization between native flannelmouth and bluehead sucker, and non-native white sucker Catostomus commersoni, longnose sucker C. catostomus, and Utah Sucker C. ardens is occurring. Some combinations are fertile and will lead to introgression (Wyoming Game and Fish Department 2010).