Longnose sucker (Catostomus catostomus) is a freshwater, brackish species recorded in the United States.
Scientific name: Catostomus catostomus · Water: Freshwater, Brackish
Size: up to 64 cm
The longnose sucker is a demersal catostomid found in the clear, cold, deep water of lakes and tributary streams, and occasionally in brackish water. Adults move from lakes into inlet streams, or from slow deep pools into shallow gravel-bottomed stretches, to spawn, and they feed on benthic invertebrates; the young are preyed upon by other fishes and fish-eating birds, while adults in spawning streams are taken by mammals, ospreys and eagles. It is utilized as a food fish or as dog food. Its range is most of Canada and Alaska, with the Atlantic Slope south to the Delaware River drainage in New York, the Great Lakes basin, the upper Monongahela River drainage in Maryland and West Virginia, the Missouri River drainage south to Nebraska and Colorado, and the Arctic basin of Siberia. Maximum length is about 64 cm total length, commonly about 22.5 cm, and it can live 20 years. It is a minor commercial species, a gamefish and a public aquarium fish. Fishing vulnerability is high to very high at 66 of 100 and resilience low. IUCN lists it as least concern.
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