Male and female blue suckers change coloration during the spawning season. Males also develop visible bumps on their heads during this time, so visual and tactile cues are likely important in blue sucker communication.
Communication Channels: visual ; tactile
Perception Channels: visual ; tactile ; acoustic ; vibrations ; chemical
US Federal List: no special status
CITES: no special status
State of Michigan List: no special status
Little is known about juvenile development in this species. It has been observed that spawning takes place in tributaries of the main stems of major rivers. Adults and juveniles segregate, with juveniles taking advantage of the slack waters in tributaries and backwaters.
Blue suckers have no known negative economic impacts on humans.
In the late 1800’s, nearly 2 million pounds of blue suckers were harvested from a 21-mile section of the Mississippi River for human consumption. More recently, their populations have not been large enough to consider harvesting them.
Positive Impacts: food
Blue suckers are predators and prey in the ecosystems they inhabit.
Blue suckers are bottom feeders whose diet includes aquatic insects, insect larvae, crustaceans, plant material, and algae.
Animal Foods: insects; aquatic crustaceans
Plant Foods: algae
Other Foods: detritus
Primary Diet: carnivore (Insectivore , Eats non-insect arthropods); herbivore (Algivore); omnivore ; detritivore
Blue suckers are widespread but rare throughout the Mississippi River basin in the United States. They are found from Pennsylvania to the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers in central Montana, and in the Rio Grande River from Texas to Alabama.
Biogeographic Regions: nearctic (Native )
Blue suckers inhabit main stems of major rivers and lower sections of main tributaries throughout their range. They are well adapted to strong currents and are found within riffles and rapidly flowing chutes. Blue suckers require gravel or rock bottoms with constantly flowing water that is relatively silt-free.
Range depth: 0.3 to 10 m.
Habitat Regions: temperate ; freshwater
Aquatic Biomes: benthic ; rivers and streams
Blue suckers have a lifespan of 9 to 12 years in the wild.
Range lifespan
Status: wild: 9 to 12 years.
Blue suckers are olive in color with blue-black fins for the majority of the year. In the spawning season, they have blue-black fins, backs, and sides, and blue-white bellies. Blue suckers have long, compressed bodies, relatively small heads, subterminal mouths, and papillose lips. Dorsal fins are long and extend far down the length of the body. Dorsal fins are also falcate, meaning that the first several anterior rays of the dorsal fin are considerably longer than the posterior rays. This gives the appearance that the fin is pointed at the front and has a curved taper throughout the rest of the fin. The tail is deeply forked and has more than 24 rays. Adult blue suckers grow to be 76 to 102 cm long and typically weigh 1.8 to 4.5 kg. Blue suckers exhibit sexual dimorphism, with females larger than males by an average of 7 cm at comparable ages.
Range mass: 1.8 to 4.5 kg.
Average mass: 2.5 kg.
Range length: 76 to 102 cm.
Other Physical Features: ectothermic ; bilateral symmetry
Sexual Dimorphism: female larger
Known predators of blue suckers include many game fish species common to the Mississippi river basin such as largemouth bass, northern pike, muskellunge, and walleye.
Known Predators:
Blue suckers spawn on sand, gravel and cobble substrates in tributaries at 0.3 to 3 m deep. They breed in the spring between April and June, at water temperatures around 10°C.
Mating System: polygynandrous (promiscuous)
Both male and female blue suckers reach sexual maturity at 3 to 4 years of age. Males develop small mating horns on their head, lips, and back during the spawning months. A female between 57 and 75 cm can produce anywhere from 150,000 to 250,000 eggs during the spawning season.
Breeding interval: Blue suckers breed annually.
Breeding season: Blue suckers breed from April to June.
Range number of offspring: 150,000 to 250,000.
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female): 3 years.
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male): 3 years.
Key Reproductive Features: iteroparous ; gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); sexual ; fertilization (External ); broadcast (group) spawning; oviparous
Parental Investment: female parental care ; pre-fertilization (Provisioning, Protecting: Female)
The blue sucker (Cycleptus elongatus) is a long-lived freshwater species of fish in the sucker family that is of conservation concern.[2] The species has an average weight of 2-3 kilograms and an average length of 76 centimeters. The record length has been recorded at 102 centimeters,[3] and individuals have been documented beyond 40 years of age.[2]
Color is variable, from light steel-gray to almost jet black in the spring. The fish is streamlined, with an inferior mouth and a small/slender head that tapers to a fleshy snout. The mouth location allows the fish to feed off the bottom of its habitat. The body of this fish is elongated and slightly compressed.[4] It has a long falcate dorsal fin which is elevated anterior with 24-35 rays. It has a long caudal peduncle and a forked caudal fin. The anal fin contains 7-8 rays on average. The scales are large and contain 55-58 along the lateral line.[5]
The blue sucker is native to the United States and Mexico. In the U.S., it lives in the Mississippi River basin north to Minnesota and Wisconsin. The Blue Sucker also lives in the Missouri River drainage to North Dakota and South Dakota and Montana. This species can also be found in the Gulf drainage from the Sabine River to the Rio Grande.[1]
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.
Blue suckers obtain their food off the bottom of rivers and other bodies of freshwater through a mouth in the inferior position. Some organisms that they eat are aquatic insect larvae, crustaceans, plant materials and algae.
The blue sucker has a spawning time from around March until June. This varies on the location of the fish and also the water temperature. Fifty-three degrees is the average water temperature in which males and females find their spawning area. This area is in fast moving water around two feet deep. Rocks in the area will also be larger than gravel, but they will be smaller than boulders. The peak water temperature is sixty-two degrees and the actual spawning time will usually last around two weeks. Male suckers will continue to come to the area until spawning is officially over. Females will go to the area, lay her eggs, and leave once she is finished and they have been fertilized.[6] Recent evidence indicates their recruitment patterns are episodic, and their life history is longer-lived than previously realized.[2]
The blue sucker is sensitive to water pollution, and is only able to live in water that is well irrigated or pollution-less. This is why it is common to see them in rivers.[7] The species is imperiled in numerous US states, and its conservation status in other states is likely in need of revision.[2]
The blue sucker also goes by the name blackhorse, the bluefish, the razor back, the sockerel, the gourd seed sucker, the Missouri Sucker, the slenderhead sucker, and the sweet sucker.[8]
"Cycleptus" is a Greek word meaning circular or slender. "Elongatus" is a Latin word meaning elongated.[9]
The blue sucker (Cycleptus elongatus) is a long-lived freshwater species of fish in the sucker family that is of conservation concern. The species has an average weight of 2-3 kilograms and an average length of 76 centimeters. The record length has been recorded at 102 centimeters, and individuals have been documented beyond 40 years of age.
