Minytrema melanops
Minytrema melanops (Rafinesque, 1820)
Spotted sucker
Minytrema melanops
photo by The Native Fish Conservancy

Family:  Catostomidae (Suckers), subfamily: Catostominae
Max. size:  50 cm TL (male/unsexed); max.weight: 1,230.0 g; max. reported age: 6 years
Environment:  demersal; freshwater, potamodromous
Distribution:  North America: lower Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins from Pennsylvania to Minnesota in the USA and south to Gulf; Atlantic and Gulf Slope drainages from Cape Fear River in North Carolina to Colorado River in Texas, USA (absent from most of peninsular Florida).
Diagnosis:   
Biology:  Adults inhabit long deep pools of small to medium rivers over clay, sand or gravel. Occasionally found in creeks, large rivers and impoundments (Ref. 5723). They feed on organic detritus, copepods, cladocerans, midge larvae and diatoms (Ref. 10294).
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC); Date assessed: 01 March 2012 Ref. (130435)
Threat to humans:  harmless


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