SCIENTIFIC NAME: Erimyzon sucetta
Characteristics: The lake chubsucker has a deeper body and reaches a larger adult size than the creek chubsucker, Erimyzon oblongus. Maximum body depth generally goes 3.2 or fewer times into standard length. Lake chubsuckers have 34 to 39 mid-lateral scales but no lateral line. The dorsal fin contains 11 or 12 soft rays, and its free edge is rounded. The anal fin is bilobed. The back is light brown in young fish to dark brown in adults. Young fish have a distinct, dark lateral band; older fish may have five or six broad, dark, vertical bars. The venter is tan or cream. Vertical fins are light tan, golden, or gray, with dark pigmentation near their bases. Paired fins are generally clear.
ADULT SIZE: 7.9 to 15 in (200 to 380 mm)
DISTRIBUTION: Lake chubsuckers occur in all Mobile basin drainages below the Fall Line. Individuals have also been collected from all coastal drainages between the Escatawpa and Chattahoochee drainages.
HABITAT AND BIOLOGY: This species is occasionally abundant in lakes, but because individuals generally will not bite a hook, they usually go unnoticed by anglers. Lake chubsuckers are most likely to be encountered in moderate or small streams with little or no current but with concentrations of aquatic vegetation over silty or sandy substrates. Large individuals flourish in lakes, river-overflow pools, and swamps. Our collections of tuberculate, gravid adults in both the Black Warrior and upper Tombigbee river systems indicate that spawning occurs from May to July. Little is known of this species’ life history in Alabama. Carlander (1969) reports a life span of five or six years and a maximum size of 15 inches.
ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION: Lacepède described the lake chubsucker in 1803.
ETYMOLOGY:
Erimyzon means to suck.
Sucetta means a sucker or sucking fish.
The copyrighted information above is from Fishes of Alabama and the Mobile Basin.
