Age, Growth, and Habits of the Hog Sucker, Hypentelium nigricans (LeSueur), in New York

Abstract

The hog sucker, Hypentelium nigricans (LeSueur), is a well known fish of the riffles and adjacent areas of warm, clear, shallow streams with rubble bottom. Its extensive range includes Minnesota and Lake of the Woods, the entire upper Mississippi River system, eastward to southern Ontario and New York; south to Georgia in the East, the Gulf slope of Mississippi, southwestern Arkansas, and eastern Oklahoma (Hubbs and Lagler, 1941: 42). Although it is sometimes caught by fishermen in the spring on hook and line, it is not oftern eaten because of its small average size and the presence of many small bones. It is also called hammerhead, hog molly, hog mullet, crawl-abottom, stone lugger, and stone toter. The bulk of its diet consists of insect larvae, crustaceans, diatoms and other minute forms of vegetation. When feeding it scrapes off the upper surface of rubble, turns over stones on the bottom, and sucks up the ooze, which includes a host of small organisms. Reighard (1920: 21) and Greeley (1935: 92) both report an interesting relationship between the feeding hog sucker and other fishes such as shiners, Notropis, and nothern smallmouth bass, Micropterus d. dolomieu. These fishes take a position downstream and feed on the aquatic insects and other forms dislodged as the hog sucker turns over rocks. As every boy who frequents small streams knows, hog suckers may easily be caught on worms or snared with a loop or hook as they lie quietly in shallow water. It is most commonly found in warm streams where it is generally associated with the northern smallmouth bass, in whose stomach it has been found. Large hog suckers are sometimes used as bait for muskellunge, northern pike and other large game fishes. It is occasionally found in lakes, usually near the mouths of streams, and apparently thrives in this habitat for the few that we have aged have grown much faster than stream specimens.