Silver lamprey

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Silver lamprey
Ichthyomyzon unicuspis.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Infraphylum: Agnatha
Class: Hyperoartia
Order: Petromyzontiformes
Family: Petromyzontidae
Genus: Ichthyomyzon
Species:
I. unicuspis
Binomial name
Ichthyomyzon unicuspis
Synonyms [2] [3]
  • Ammocoetes concolorKirtland 1840
  • Scolecosoma concolor(Kirtland 1840)

The silver lamprey (Ichthyomyzon unicuspis) is a lamprey commonly found in the Northern and Central United States, as well as a large part of southern Canada. Its binomial name means "sucking fish" in Greek and "one-pointed" in Latin. The silver lamprey is a member of the class Agnatha, sometimes referred to as cyclostomes (round-mouths). Other common names include: bloodsucker, blue lamprey, hitch-hiker, lamper, lamprey eel, northern lamprety. The silver lamprey should not be confused with the sea lamprey ( Petromyzon marinus ), which has caused considerable damage to native fish populations in the Great Lakes region.

Contents

Distribution

An illustration of a Silver lamprey from Fishes of Illinois by Forbes and Richarson. Ichthyomyzon unicuspis 1908.jpg
An illustration of a Silver lamprey from Fishes of Illinois by Forbes and Richarson.

The silver lamprey is commonly found along the Great Lakes and in the Mississippi River and Ohio River and their tributaries from Minnesota to Nebraska, Tennessee, and West Virginia. There have also been a small number of isolated encounters around the Hudson Bay and in the Mississippi River in Mississippi.

Identification

The silver lamprey is an eel-like fish with an attenuate body composed of 49–52 clearly defined segments (i.e. myomeres, between the last gill slit and the anus). Silver lampreys possess a cartilaginous skeleton, and adults generally grow to a length of 12 inches and are silvery or bluish in color when spawning. Prior to spawning adults are often a dull brown or tan color. The dorsal fin is continuous, though it may be notched. The mouth is a jawless, sucking disc, with unicuspid teeth arranged in circular rows and is in the inferior position. When expanded, the mouth is wider than the lamprey's body. The lamprey's gills are arranged in a straight line immediately behind the eye, and a single nostril is located between the eyes. Larvae are a brown to tan all over have no eyes (instead they have eyespots) and are called ammocoetes. They also have seven gill openings and do not have any paired fins, they have only a long continuous fin runs from the dorsal to the ventral side. Ammocoetes also have no teeth and instead have an oral hood which houses skin extensions that help them filter particles out of the water as they draw it into their oral cavity.

A detailed view of a Sea lamprey's oral disc. The oral disc of the Silver lamprey has a similar pattern of tooth-like structures. Lamprey mouth.jpg
A detailed view of a Sea lamprey's oral disc. The oral disc of the Silver lamprey has a similar pattern of tooth-like structures.

Habitat

Adult silver lampreys prefer the clear waters of large streams, rivers, and lakes. Adults migrate to nest in flowing water that has stoney or gravelly bottom material. When they hatch, the larvae move to slowly flowing areas initially with thick organic layers. As they grow in size, they begin to migrate to sandy environments where they will reside until they reach metamorphosis.

Diet

Adult silver lampreys are parasitic, feeding on the blood of other fishes. Most non-parasitic lamprey feed only as larvae, then die. Silver lampreys use their oral discs to attach to their hosts, then cut through the skin and scales with their teeth. The lamprey will remain attached to the host over a long period of time, but they seldom kill their host (which have coevolved with these lampreys). Adults feed on a variety of fishes, including trout, whitefish, smelt, pike, white sucker, brown bullhead, rock bass, walleye, and the armored lake sturgeon. The silver lamprey's larval young feed on drifting plankton, algae, and detritus.

Reproduction and life cycle

Adult silver lampreys move upstream to spawn in May and June, when the water temperature reaches 50 °F. Using their mouths to move sand and gravel, they dig a nest in the stream bed. Once the nest is completed, the female attaches herself to a rock and the male attaches to her head, wrapping his tail around hers to bring the genitals close together. Eggs and sperm are released, then the pair separates. Once spawning is completed and the eggs are deposited in the nest, the adults die. Upon hatching, the larvae (called ammocoetes) are blind, toothless, and provided with a fine-mesh tissue sieve. They drift downstream and burrow in the sand, mud, and organic material for 4–7 years. During this time, the ammocoetes feed mostly on detritus and algae. When they are approximately four to five inches long, the ammocoetes metamorphose into parasitic adults and migrate downstream to search for hosts. After one to two years feeding as a parasite, adult silver lampreys move upstream to spawn and die.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sea lamprey</span> Parasitic lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) native to the Northern Hemisphere

The sea lamprey is a parasitic lamprey native to the Northern Hemisphere. It is sometimes referred to as the "vampire fish".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brook lamprey</span> Species of jawless fish

The brook lamprey, also known as the European brook lamprey and the western brook lamprey is a small European lamprey species that exclusively inhabits freshwater environments. The species is related to, but distinct from, the North American western brook lamprey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arctic lamprey</span> Species of jawless fish

The Arctic lamprey, also known as the Japanese river lamprey or Japanese lampern, is a species of lamprey, a jawless fish in the order Petromyzontiformes. It inhabits coastal freshwater habitat types in the Arctic. Some populations are anadromous, spending part of their lives in the ocean. It is the most common and widespread lamprey in the Arctic region.

Mordacia mordax, known as the short-headed lamprey, Australian lamprey or Murray lamprey, is a species of Mordacia that lives in south-eastern Australia and Tasmania. Mordaciidae is made up of three species: M. praedox, M. mordax, and M. lapicida. M. mordax is a relatively rare, parasitic vertebrate and, along with the hagfishes, is part of the only surviving group of jawless organisms throughout vertebrate evolution. It has a thin eel-like body up to 50 cm (20 in) long, with two low dorsal fins on the back half. The skin is blue-gray or brown. Its eyes are small, and located on the top of its head.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pouched lamprey</span> Species of lamprey

The pouched lamprey, also known as the piharau in the North Island, korokoro,kanakana in the South Island, or wide-mouthed lamprey, is a species in the genus Geotria, which is the only genus in the family Geotriidae. The second species in the genus is the Argentinian lamprey, which was revalidated as a separate species in 2020. The pouched lamprey is native to the southern hemisphere. It spends the early part of its life in fresh water, migrating to the sea as an adult, and returning to fresh water to spawn and die.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pacific lamprey</span> Species of jawless fish

The Pacific lamprey is an anadromous parasitic lamprey from the Pacific Coast of North America and Asia in an area called the Pacific Rim. It is a member of the Petromyzontidae family. The Pacific lamprey is also known as the three-tooth lamprey and tridentate lamprey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">European river lamprey</span> Species of freshwater lamprey

The European river lamprey, also known as the river lamprey or lampern, is a species of freshwater lamprey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chestnut lamprey</span> Species of jawless fish

The chestnut lamprey is a species of lamprey.

<i>Lethenteron appendix</i> Species of lamprey

Lethenteron appendix, the American brook lamprey, is a common non-parasitic lamprey in North America. In adults their disc-like mouths contain poorly developed teeth, useless for attaching to a host.

The mountain brook lamprey or Allegheny brook lamprey is a lamprey found in parts of the Mississippi river basin, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and in the Cumberland River and Tennessee River. This fish is jawless with a small sucker mouth and a long, eel-like body. It is fairly small, only growing to about 8 inches (20 cm) in length.

The southern brook lamprey is a lamprey found in the Southern United States including Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. It is a jawless fish with a sucking mouth on one end of it. It can appear to be a small eel, since it is rarely longer than one foot in length.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northern brook lamprey</span> Species of jawless fish

The northern brook lamprey is a freshwater fish in the family Petromyzontidae. It is closely related to the silver lamprey and may represent an ecotype of a single species with I. unicuspis.

<i>Eudontomyzon danfordi</i> Species of jawless fish

Eudontomyzon danfordi, the Carpathian brook lamprey or Danube lamprey, is a species of lamprey in the family Petromyzontidae. It is found in Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, Slovakia, and Ukraine. Unlike other brook lampreys, this fish is parasitic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lake lamprey</span> Species of jawless fish

The lake lamprey, Entosphenus macrostomus, also known as the Vancouver lamprey or Cowichan lamprey, a recent derivative of the Pacific lamprey, is a species of freshwater lamprey endemic to two North American lakes: Lake Cowichan and Mesachie Lake in Vancouver Island, Canada. The lamprey was originally called the Vancouver Island lamprey, until an error in filing shortened it to the Vancouver lamprey. The alternate common name of "Cowichan lamprey" was coined and promoted by the species' describer, Dr. Dick Beamish, who originally identified the species in the 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lamprey</span> Order of jawless fish

Lampreys are an ancient lineage of jawless fish of the order Petromyzontiformes. The adult lamprey are characterized by a toothed, funnel-like sucking mouth. The common name "lamprey" is probably derived from Latin lampetra, which may mean "stone licker", though the etymology is uncertain. Lamprey is sometimes seen for the plural form.

The Caspian lamprey, Caspiomyzon wagneri, is a species of lamprey native to the Caspian Sea, and a member of the Petromyzontidae family. This species is a non-parasitic lamprey that feeds on animal carcasses.

The least brook lamprey is a common, non-parasitic lamprey distributed in the Mississippi River watershed, and a limited range along the Atlantic coast.

The Ohio lamprey is a lamprey found in the Ohio River drainage basin in the United States and is a parasitic species of lampreys. They are considered to be an endangered/rare species in some states, due to siltation, pollution, and construction of dams.

<i>Priscomyzon</i> Extinct lamprey from late Devonian South Africa

Priscomyzon riniensis is an extinct lamprey that lived some 360 million years ago during the Famennian in a marine or estuarine environment in South Africa. This small agnathan is anatomically similar to the Mazon Creek lampreys, but is some 35 million years older. Its key developments included the first known large oral disc, circumoral teeth and a branchial basket.

<i>Lampetra ayresii</i> Species of jawless fish

Lampetra ayresii is a species of lamprey in the family Petromyzontidae. It is also called the river lamprey or western river lamprey. It is found in the eastern Pacific, specifically from Tee Harbor, Juneau in Alaska to the Sacramento–San Joaquin drainage in California, USA. It can survive in both marine surface waters and freshwater lakes, rivers, and creeks. In freshwater, it is found typically in the lower portions of large river systems. It is a predatory fish and feeds on fishes in the size range of 10–30 cm. It feeds by attaching to prey using its round, sucker-like mouth. Adult western river lampreys typically grow to about 21 cm (8.3 in) total length (TL), but can reach 31 cm (12 in) TL.

References

  1. NatureServe (2015). "Ichthyomyzon unicuspis". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2015: e.T202621A76578043. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2015-1.RLTS.T202621A76578043.en . Retrieved 7 May 2018.
  2. Van Der Laan, Richard; Eschmeyer, William N.; Fricke, Ronald (11 November 2014). "Family-group names of Recent fishes". Zootaxa. 3882 (1): 1–230. doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.3882.1.1 . PMID   25543675.
  3. Froese, R.; Pauly, D. (2017). "Petromyzontidae". FishBase version (02/2017). Retrieved 18 May 2017.
Gary L. Phillips, William D. Schmid, James Campbell Underhill
Samuel Eddy, James Campbell Underhill
http://www.rook.org/earl/bwca/nature/fish/ichthyomyzon.html
http://www.iowagis.org/iris/fishatlas/IA159730.html
Patrick J. Manion, Lee H. Hanson
Robert G. Werner
http://www.ohiodnr.com/Home/species_a_to_z/SpeciesGuideIndex/silverlamprey/tabid/6754/Default.aspx