| Blue sucker | |
|---|---|
| Conservation status | |
| 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.