Sonora sucker | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Actinopterygii |
Order: | Cypriniformes |
Family: | Catostomidae |
Genus: | Catostomus |
Species: | C. insignis |
Binomial name | |
Catostomus insignis S. F. Baird & Girard, 1854 | |
The Sonora Sucker (or Gila Sucker), [3] 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).
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. [4] Adults can reach a length of 80 cm (31.5 in), and can weigh about 2 kg (4.4 lb).
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. [5]
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. [4] During daylight, adult Sonora suckers tend to take cover and stay in the shade.
The Sonora sucker's main diet consists of tiny crustaceans, protozoans, and macroinvertebrates. [4] Adult fish are omnivorous, and feed in the early morning and late evening.
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. [4] Spawning starts late in the winter and goes on until midsummer.
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.
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.
The loach minnow is a species of freshwater fish. It is a member of the carp family of order Cypriniformes. It occurs in streams and small rivers throughout the Gila River and San Pedro River systems in Arizona, New Mexico, and Sonora; it is now considered extinct in Mexico.
The Gila trout is a species of salmonid, related to the rainbow trout, native to the Southwest United States. Prior to 2006 the Gila trout was federally listed as endangered. In July 2006, after much work by the Game and Fish departments in New Mexico and Arizona, the US Forest Service and the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Gila trout was down-listed to threatened, with a special provision called a "4d rule" that will allow limited sport fishing – for the first time in nearly half a century. By the time the Gila trout was closed to fishing in the 1950s, its numbers and range were so depleted and so reduced this copper-colored trout simply wasn't very accessible to anglers. As of 2011 there is fishing in both states for this fish.
The longnose sucker is a species of cypriniform freshwater fish in the family Catostomidae. It is native to North America from the northern United States to the top of the continent. It is also found in Russia in rivers of eastern Siberia, and this one of only two species of sucker native to Asia.
The roundtail chub is a cyprinid fish in the genus Gila, of southwestern North America. It is native to the Colorado River drainage basin, including the Gila River and other tributaries, and in several other rivers. It is part of the "robusta complex", which includes the Gila robusta robusta, G.r. grahami, and G.r. seminuda.
The razorback sucker is a suckerfish found in rivers and lakes in the southwestern United States and formerly northwestern Mexico. It can grow to 91 cm (3 ft) in length and is recognisable by the keel between its head and dorsal fin. It used to inhabit much of the Colorado River Basin but commercial fishing, river damming, and habitat loss have caused great declines in populations. It is now restricted to the Colorado River upstream of the Grand Canyon and to four reservoirs, Lake Mead, Lake Mohave, Lake Havasu, and Lake Powell.
The Colorado pikeminnow is the largest cyprinid fish of North America and one of the largest in the world, with reports of individuals up to 6 ft (1.8 m) long and weighing over 100 pounds (45 kg). Native to the Colorado River Basin of the southwestern United States and adjacent Mexico, it was formerly an important food fish for both Native Americans and European settlers. Once abundant and widespread in the basin, its numbers have declined to the point where it has been extirpated from the Mexican part of its range and was listed as endangered in the US part in 1967, a fate shared by the three other large Colorado Basin endemic fish species: bonytail chub, humpback chub, and razorback sucker. The Colorado pikeminnow is currently listed as vulnerable by the IUCN, while its NatureServe conservation status is "critically imperiled".
The bonytail chub or bonytail is a cyprinid freshwater fish native to the Colorado River basin of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming in the southwestern United States; it has been extirpated from the part of the basin in Mexico. It was once abundant and widespread in the basin, its numbers and range have declined to the point where it has been listed as endangered since 1980 (ESA) and 1986 (IUCN), a fate shared by the other large Colorado basin endemic fish species like the Colorado pikeminnow, humpback chub, and razorback sucker. It is now the rarest of the endemic big-river fishes of the Colorado River. There are 20 species in the genus Gila, seven of which are found in Arizona.
The Yaqui sucker is a species of ray-finned fish in the family Catostomidae. It is found in the Aridoamerica region of northern Mexico and south-western United States. Catostomus bernardini or Yaqui sucker belongs to the family Catostomidae. The Yaqui sucker is related to the Sonora sucker and could possibly be a subspecies of the Gila sucker.
The Klamath largescale sucker is a species of ray-finned fish in the family Catostomidae. It is endemic to the Klamath River basin in northern California and southern Oregon, within the Western United States.
The beautiful shiner is a species of ray-finned fish in the family Cyprinidae. It is found in Mexico and Arizona and New Mexico in the United States. It is one of 22 species of Cyprinella found in North America.
The Gila chub is a species of ray-finned fish in the family Cyprinidae. It is found in Mexico and the United States. The Gila chub is closely related to the roundtail chub. This species is commonly found in association with the Gila topminnow, the desert and Sonora sucker, and the longfin and speckled dace.
The bluehead sucker is endemic to the intermountain Western US. A total of 23 members of the genus Catostomus has been found in North America. C. discobolus and C. yarrowi are two sister species that have very similar Arizona habitats.
Catostomus latipinnis is a North American fish identified by its enlarged lower lips. It belongs to the genus Catostomus, commonly known as suckers. Historically, the flannelmouth sucker ranged in the Colorado River Basin, including parts of Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, California, and Arizona; however, this species has been entirely extirpated from the Gila River Basin in Arizona.
The Little Colorado River sucker or Little Colorado sucker is a scientifically undescribed species of North American freshwater fish very similar to the flannelmouth sucker but without the flannelmouth's distinct fleshy lips. The Little Colorado sucker is native to the upper region of the Little Colorado River in Arizona, but was also introduced into the Salt River.
Catostomus discobolus jarrovii is a species of fish only found in Arizona and New Mexico in the United States.
The Modoc sucker is a rare species of freshwater fish native to northern California and southern Oregon. It grows to a length of about 7 in (18 cm) and becomes sexually mature at 4 in (10 cm). It feeds on algae, small invertebrates and detritus, and hides under stones, detritus and overhanging vegetation. It is found in only a few streams and is listed as an endangered species in California and the United States. Conservation measures have been put in place such as fencing the streams in which it lives from livestock. It was previously rated as "endangered" in 1973 by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, but this rating has now been changed to "near threatened", and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed the Modoc sucker from the federal list of endangered and threatened wildlife in 2016.
The desert sucker or Gila Mountain sucker, is a freshwater species of ray-finned fish in the sucker family, endemic to the Great Basin and the Colorado River Basin in the United States. It inhabits rapids and fast-flowing streams with gravelly bottoms. It is a bi-colored fish with the upper parts olive brown to dark green, and the underparts silvery-tan or yellowish. The head is cylindrical, tapering to a thick-lipped mouth on the underside. This fish can grow to 31 in (79 cm) in Arizona but is generally only about half this size elsewhere. There are three subspecies, found in different river basins, and some authorities allot this species its own genus Pantosteus.
The white sucker is a species of freshwater cypriniform fish inhabiting the upper Midwest and Northeast in North America, but it is also found as far south as Georgia and as far west as New Mexico. The fish is commonly known as a "sucker" due to its fleshy, papillose lips that suck up organic matter and aufwuchs from the bottom of rivers and streams.
The Tahoe sucker is a freshwater cypriniform fish inhabiting the Great Basin region of the Western United States.
The Rio Grande sucker is a North American freshwater fish in the family Catostomidae. It has a typical bottom-feeding phenotype and fills lower trophic levels alongside Rio Grande cutthroat trout and Rio Grande chub species. It is smaller sized in comparison to its other family members, with females being the larger between sexes. Coloration tends to benefit the species due to counter-shading patterns. It is endemic to the Rio Grande basin and was once common throughout. The species has maintained a population in New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, and Northern Mexico, but has faced challenges from the pressure of non-native species, habitat loss, degradation, and a variety of other aquatic ecosystem changes. There is current pressure from environmental organizations to federally list the species as threatened or endangered.