Moxostoma pappillosum
Catostomidae · freshwater water fish
2 minute read · Species guide
The V-lip redhorse (Moxostoma pappillosum) is a species of freshwater catostomid fish from Eastern North America. It inhabits drainages on the Atlantic Slope between Virginia and South Carolina.
The IGFA all tackle world record for the species stands at 0.45 kg (1 lb 0 oz) taken from the Green River in North Carolina in 2018.
Article text: Wikipedia contributors, V-lip redhorse (source revision). Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Retrieved 2026-10-11.
The FishTraits compilation records these diet categories for this species: aquatic or other vascular plants; 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.
Reported habitat associations include medium to large rivers, streams and small rivers, still-water habitats.
The source records associations with muck, clay or silt, sand, gravel, cobble, boulders, bedrock. An association indicates reported use, rather than an exclusive requirement.
The compilation reports a representative maturity age of 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 Apr, May, Jun, Jul for the source’s reporting region (NC). This is a regional calendar, not a range-wide schedule.
The reproductive-guild classification includes spawning on open substrates without guarding the brood.
FishTraits reports a maximum total length of 45 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 12 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
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.
The USGS stream survey caught it at 51 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.
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Closest relatives
Same family
