TAXONOMY
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii (ray-finned fishes)
Order: Cypriniformes (Carps)
Family: Catostomidae (Suckers)

GENUS/SPECIES: Ictiobus bubalus

Smallmouth Buffalo Fish Ictiobus bubalus (Catostomidae) (Suckers) 3000398478:

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS: Common length : 58.5 cm (2 feet), max. weight: 37 kg (81 pounds). Stocky with a dorsal hump. Color varies from gray to brown and coppery green dorsally and pale yellow to white ventrally.

DISTRIBUTION/HABITAT: Lake Michigan drainage and Mississippi River basin from Pennsylvania and Michigan to Montana, and south to the Gulf of Mexico and Mexico. Inhabits pools, backwaters and main channels of small to large rivers. Also in lakes and reservoirs.

DIET IN THE WILD: Feeds on benthic crustaceans, mollusks; also algae. Grinds prey with the bony plates in its throat.

Smallmouth Buffalo Fish Ictiobus bubalus (Catostomidae) (Suckers)IMG_2505

REPRODUCTION: Spawns in spring and summer with the female depositing tens of thousands of eggs which adhere to vegetation and gravel to keep from flowing away.

MORTALITY: Lives to 15 years.

REMARKS: Somewhat boney but a desirable food fish. These fishes are caught in commercial fishing gear including hoop and wing nets, drag seines, and trammel and gill nets in the midwest. (Rarely taken by hook-and-line fishing).

Water planet Feeding Cluster WP31

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