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Sucker raising thread.

Started by Guest_lozgod_* , Oct 09 2009 10:52 PM

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18 replies to this topic

#1 Guest_lozgod_*

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Posted 09 October 2009 - 10:52 PM

Before deciding on a sucker I researched and found quite a bit of bad experiences taking care of suckers. I have had mine about a month. I was hesitant but got one to see how it goes and am glad I did. I read Farmer Todds Ultimate Native Tank article. I researched a lot on their habits and diet in the wild. Finally I observed it's behavior in the tank.

I have a white aka common sucker aka Catostomus commersonii. He has definitely grown some since I added him to the tank. Looking thicker. Not the most aggressive feeder in the tank by a long shot. It was a concern at first because I have two Pingi Logsuckers in there that are aggressive bottom feeders. It is getting its fair share and when really hungry will put up a fight.

I have blackworms in the substrate that everything but the sucker will eat. The sucker's primary choices are wafers and frozen daphnia. It will actually swim around and eat the daphnia directly out of the water column vs eating it off the bottom. The wafers I feed my fish aren't just algae. They are a combo enriched wafer. A guy that lives local to me has an Ebay non brick and mortar fish store. I bought a light off of him on Ebay and went to his house to pick it up and he gave me a sample of the wafers. The fish love them and appear to be doing well on them so I plan on going back and buying some. When I get them I will post more info.

Anyone else got $0.02 to add?

Also I have a question. Does anyone have any idea on inches per year I can expect it to grow? I have a friend with a backyard pond I can put it in when it outgrows the tank (when it hits 6-7 inches I will remove it). Right now it is about 3 inches long.

#2 Guest_FirstChAoS_*

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Posted 10 October 2009 - 04:39 AM

I had success with a sucker until a filter failure killed off the bottom dwellers in my big tank.

He liked eating shrimp pellets, but he was so timid he'd run from other fish and from me adding pellets near him, I had to overfeed to keep him fed.

#3 Guest_thebrantacanadensis1x_*

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Posted 23 February 2011 - 07:23 PM

It seems that suckers are not the easiest fish to care for

#4 Guest_smbass_*

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Posted 24 February 2011 - 12:09 AM

They are a challenge but are worth the effort if you like large peaceful fish. Good species to try are any of the three Chubsuckers, Common White Suckers, and Spotted Suckers.

#5 Guest_AOmonsta_*

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Posted 24 February 2011 - 11:49 AM

I currently keep 2 Northern Hog Suckers. Very awesome and under appreciated suckers. I would suggest some of them to any native tank.

#6 Guest_smbass_*

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Posted 24 February 2011 - 05:08 PM

Hog suckers are rather nice fish but do require a little more special care than some of the ones I mentioned above. You have to be sure you are feeding them a lot and that the food is getting to them and not being eaten by all the other fish in he tank. This really is true with most suckers, they are not aggressive feeders so tank mates should be chosen carefully. Also putting a lot of food in the tank so there is some laying around on the substrate for a while for the suckers to slowly feed on is a must. Additionally most species are rather nervous fish so it helps a lot to start with young ones and have a fair amount of other active fish in the tank to make them settle down and feel comfortable.

#7 Michael Wolfe

Board of Directors

North Georgia, Oconee River Drainage

Posted 24 February 2011 - 05:11 PM

I currently keep 2 Northern Hog Suckers. Very awesome and under appreciated suckers. I would suggest some of them to any native tank.

Well not any tank... I mean hogsuckers get huge...

How long have you had these two? In what size tank?

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin

#8 Guest_AOmonsta_*

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Posted 24 February 2011 - 06:23 PM

Well not any tank... I mean hogsuckers get huge...

How long have you had these two? In what size tank?

I've had one for a little over a month and the other for about a week. One is about 6" the other about 9"
I have them in my 150g. They actually are not slow eaters. Once they see the food hit the bottom they go after it.

#9 Guest_smbass_*

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Posted 25 February 2011 - 10:17 AM

What I am referring too is the fact that plenty of food needs to hit the bottom, if you have many other more active fish often no food makes it too the bottom unless your active fish are stuffed. I also don't think you have had them long enough to really know how well they are doing. It takes a lot of food to make them actually grow. If they have grown a couple inches each and you have had them for a whole year, then they are doing well. Before that I won't be too impressed.

#10 Guest_UncleWillie_*

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Posted 27 February 2011 - 09:00 PM

I think Brian summed it up pretty well. I know Todd Crail has had more success than most. I will share my limited sucker-keeping experiences. (1) Suckers are leapers. A decent lid or hood is a must. Before I rigged something up, I nearly lost a striped jumprock twice in two weeks because he leaped from the tank. Luckily, this tank is next to the bed and when I heard commotion and flopping on the floor, I woke up and threw him back in the tank. (2) As Brian said, they are active feeders, but tend to be "leisure feeders," and cannot compete with the aggressive minnows and sunfishes. I had hogsucker and jumprock in a tank with two very small bullheads. This turned out to be a great combination b/c the suckers would get fed during the day, and the bullheads wouldn't feed until night. This gave the suckers plenty of time to feed at there leisure. While they immediately sucked in bloodworms and sinking pellets, but are sometime slow to chew their food. (3) Getting decent growth will take time and plenty of high-quality foods. I kept 3 robust redhorse fingerlings that were malnourished with sunken-in bellies. It took about three weeks of plenty of food to even show the slightest bit of them filling back out. It was about 3 months when they finally started looking 'robust' again, but there was zero growth in length. (4) Overall very cool fish to have -- if you have the tank space and the food. Interesting to watch the different interactions, social and feeding behavior of different species. It was amazing watching the hogsuckers move the substrate from one end of the tank to another in 24 hours through his foraging techniques. Also quite cool to see the jumprocks get sideways and popping the glass, rocks and plants for algae. Anyhoo, I figured I'd add my experiences.

#11 Guest_smbass_*

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Posted 02 March 2011 - 05:11 PM

Just thought I would add I too have a small striped jumprock, really neat sucker and mine actually turns upside down and feeds off the bottom of the sponge filter in the tank.

#12 Guest_D_Wilkins_*

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Posted 03 March 2011 - 03:48 PM

I agree with most everything, especially the feeding. If the suckers are in a mix species tank it can be hard to get food to suckers without overfeeding the other fish. Also over the years of bring in small suckers (30-40mm)of most varieties found in SC and raising most to adults, one of my main problems has been scoliosis "bent back". Now I always add vitamen C to any Catostomidae food, Erimyzon has not had this problem.

#13 Guest_itsme_*

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Posted 03 March 2011 - 05:00 PM

Some suckers can produce very loud sounds. One day I heard this loud clicking from across the room, almost like someone was tapping on the glass, hard. I investigated for a while and found is was a shorthead redhorse (only 4 inches long!). I'm not sure how they do this. Pharyngeal teeth? I recently heard this again from a striped jumprock that was four inches long. Very impressive. BTW, I've found that small ( 3") shorthead redhorses are fairly easy to keep. Well easier than other redhorses anyway. Sometimes it's a particular individual that will acclimate better than others. I didn't really do anything special for the shorthead.

What is the purpose of these sounds? As a warning? To scare predators? To roust prey from the substrate? Boredom?

#14 Guest_gerald_*

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Posted 03 March 2011 - 06:59 PM

Just wait til y'all see the Torrent Sucker in VA this May: that's my favorite, stays small, very common in the James basin.
Don't know how easy or hard they are to keep, but they can live in quite warm streams.

Mark - your noisy suckers may have been grinding up snails with their phayngeal teeth.
I'm sure Dr. Jenkins will tell us more about their vocal communications.

#15 Guest_Drew_*

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Posted 03 March 2011 - 08:31 PM

Just wait til y'all see the Torrent Sucker in VA this May: that's my favorite, stays small, very common in the James basin.
Don't know how easy or hard they are to keep, but they can live in quite warm streams.

Mine didn't last very long in a community tank full of hungry mouths. There wasn't enough for them to graze on I'm guessing.

#16 Guest_smbass_*

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Posted 03 March 2011 - 11:00 PM

I would say Gerald is correct I had a shorthead redhorse for several years a while back. It learned to take snails and spit them against the glass making very loud sounds as it smashed them. It also made loud noises when it took smaller snails in its mouth and crushed them with its pharyngeal teeth. Maybe it is possible that they can make noises by clicking or grinding their pharyngeal teeth with out even having anything else in there.

#17 Guest_UncleWillie_*

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Posted 04 March 2011 - 02:12 PM

I previously thought the sounds I've heard from my jumprocks was usually from the actually impact of their lips when hitting glass or rocks for algae/diatoms. However, after watching, I also heard these sounds when they hit soft items like the prefilter sponge on a powerhead and on plant leaves. So I also think another possibility for the sound coming from the smacking sound created from the lips themselves when sucking in food - not just impacting the glass and rocks. Another note, from handling larger jumprock and notchlip redhorse, is you can sometimes feel 'popping' inside the head of larger suckers when you handle them. They are not just moving their mouths, but the pharyngeal jaws will make a very intense 'pop'(like popping your knuckles or neck) occasionally when they are being handled. So I think it can be a number of possibilities of what is exactly making that sound that wakes us up at night.

#18 Guest_jacksmelt_*

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Posted 27 December 2012 - 08:28 PM

I've got a 5in. spotted sucker in my newly started 55 gal. he's usually hiding behind a rock but when spooked he's jumped clear out of the tank before or hit the lid hard enough to scare whoevers in the room! hes a tough son of a gun! he occasionally comes out in the open to sit in the current of my small water pump. i see him foraging in the substrate but don't see him eat anything substantial. he's thin but not sickly looking. i don't have any sinking food just flake and floating pellets for my red bellies. should i invest in sinking food just for him?

#19 Michael Wolfe

Board of Directors

North Georgia, Oconee River Drainage

Posted 27 December 2012 - 09:42 PM

yes, he would appreciate something that sinks... I used simple wardley shrimp pellets...but also saw him eat frozen brine and mysis out of the water column... and I have to agree with you on the jumping... I kept one striped jumprock over a year and he actually got fat and added an inch or so of length, but then found him dead-on-floor one day... I hate that... seems that many of our natives are jumpers

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin