Blue sucker

Blue sucker
Conservation status
Near Threatened (IUCN 2.3)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Cypriniformes
Suborder:	Cobitoidea
Family:	Catostomidae
Genus:	Cycleptus
Species:	C. elongatus
Binomial name
Cycleptus elongatus Lesueur, 1817

The blue sucker, Cycleptus elongatus, is a freshwater species of fish in the sucker family. Color is variable, from light steel-gray to almost black. The fish is streamlined, with a pointed head and a subterminal mouth. Huge migrations of these fast, powerful fish once migrated throughout the Mississippi River basin, and spring harvests of blue sucker were a staple food for early pioneers. Blue suckers are very rare today, thought to be due to the segmentation of habitat caused by the thousands of dams which have been built in the last century. Blues frequent the thalweg of large river systems, in heavy current. Early records indicate that this fish once reached weights of over 40 lb, although 15-pounders are quite rare today.

Blue suckers eat aquatic insect larvae, crustaceans, plant materials and algae.

References

• Gimenez Dixon (1996). Cycleptus elongatus. 2006. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. www.iucnredlist.org. Retrieved on 11 May 2006.
• Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2005). "Cycleptus elongatus" in FishBase. November 2005 version.
• NatureServe - Cycleptus elongatus
• Fishes of Minnesota - Blue sucker
• roughfish.com - Blue sucker