Species: Catostomus platyrhynchus
Mountain Sucker
Species
Encyclopedia of Puget Sound
See Snyder and Muth (1990) for a guide to the identification of larvae and early juveniles.
Source: Encyclopedia of Life
Classification
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Craniata
Class
Actinopterygii
Order
Cypriniformes
Family
Catostomidae
Genus
Catostomus
NatureServe
Classification
Other Global Common Names
meunier des montagnes
Informal Taxonomy
Animals, Vertebrates - Fishes - Bony Fishes - Suckers
Formal Taxonomy
Animalia - Craniata - Actinopterygii - Cypriniformes - Catostomidae - Catostomus - See Smith (1992) for a study of the phylogeny and biogeography of the Catostomidae.
Ecology and Life History
See Snyder and Muth (1990) for a guide to the identification of larvae and early juveniles.
Source: Encyclopedia of Life
Habitat Type Description
Freshwater
Migration
true - true - false - Limited upstream spawning migrations may occur (Moyle 1976). In Utah, individuals migrated from Lost Creek Reservoir and spawned in Lost Creek (Wydoski and Wydoski 2002).
Non-migrant
true
Locally Migrant
true
Food Comments
Feeds mostly on algae and diatoms; also consumes some invertebrates (especially true of juveniles). Scrapes food from rocks with its cartilaginous lower jaw.
Reproduction Comments
Females usually sexually mature in 4-5 years, males in 2-3 years. Each female produces 900-4000 eggs, depending on her size (Brown 1971). Spawning occurs late spring-early summer when the water temperature is 11-19 C (Smith 1966). Spawned from late May through June at 9-11 C in Utah (Wydoski and Wydoski 2002).
Ecology Comments
May be a sensitive indicator of native fish and invertebrate assemblages. Forms schools, sometimes with other sucker species.
Length
18
Conservation Status
NatureServe Global Status Rank
G5
Global Status Last Reviewed
2003-03-11
Global Status Last Changed
1996-09-19
Other Status
2010-11-01 - PS: T,SC,NAR
Distribution
Conservation Status Map
<img src="http://www.natureserve.org/explorer/servlet/GetMapGif?CA.AB=S4&CA.BC=S2&CA.SK=S1&US.CA=S2&US.CO=S2&US.ID=S5&US.MT=S5&US.NE=S1&US.NV=SNR&US.OR=S4&US.SD=S3&US.UT=S4&US.WA=S2&US.WY=S5" alt="Conservation Status Map" style="width: 475px; height: auto;" />
Global Range
Range extends from the Saskatchewan River system (Hudson Bay basin), Saskatchewan and Alberta, and Fraser River drainage, British Columbia, south through the upper Missouri and Colorado River drainages to southern Colorado and Utah, and through the Columbia River drainage, Oregon; Lahontan basin, Oregon, Nevada, and California; and upper Sacramento River system, northeastern California (Page and Burr 2011). This species apparently is native to but extirpated in western pluvial Lake Bonneville basin in eastern Nevada (Andersen and Deacon 1996). It is introduced and common in the Duchesne River, Utah; rare elsewhere in the Colorado River drainage; also introduced in the Price River (Sigler and Sigler 1996).