Santa Ana sucker
| Santa Ana sucker | |
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Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Cypriniformes |
| Family: | Catostomidae |
| Genus: | Catostomus |
| Species: | C. santaanae
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| Binomial name | |
| Catostomus santaanae (Snyder, 1908)
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| Synonyms | |
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The Santa Ana sucker (Catostomus santaanae) is a freshwater ray-finned fish, endemic to California. It is closely related to the mountain sucker and has dark grey upper parts and silvery underparts. It grows to a maximum length of 25 cm (10 in), but most adults are much smaller than this. It feeds on algae, diatoms and detritus on the floor of shallow streams with sand, gravel or cobble bottoms. It is found in only a few streams in southern California, and many of these in the Greater Los Angeles metropolitan area have been restricted to concrete channels. Because of its small area of occupancy and vulnerability, the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated this fish as "endangered".[1]
Description
The Santa Ana sucker is closely related to the
Also like the mountain sucker, it feeds on diatoms, other kinds of algae, and detritus, which it obtains by scraping surfaces such as rocks. It also eats the occasional insect larva, with larger fish observed to consume insects more frequently.[5]
The breading habits of Santa Ana Suckers do not differ from other species of suckers as the female fish are attended by at least 2 male fishes during mating seasons. A female sucker can release between 4,000 and 16,000 eggs amongst her gradual breeding process.[4]
Their living patterns consist of being a nonmigrant species that are short-lived with around 4 years of time, on average.[6]
Habitat
Santa Ana suckers live in small to medium size streams throughout the year in Southern California. They notably thrive in freshwater conditions. The depths go from a few centimeters to over 1 metre (3 ft 3 in). The rivers they swim in are at cool temperatures (average of less than 22 °C or 72 °F), with variable flow as the suckers are well adapted to survive in the most intense flood conditions.[4] Not surprisingly, given their feeding method, they prefer gravel, rubble, and boulder substrates.
Range
The Catostomus santaanae range is extremely restricted; they are native only to the
Conservation
Since Santa Ana suckers were first listed as a federally
Although some stretches of the rivers are 'wild' and protected by being within the
In 2010, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued an expanded critical habitat determination for the Santa Ana sucker, which came into effect on January 13, 2011.[9]
References
- ^ . Retrieved 20 November 2021.
- ^ "Santa Ana sucker (Catostomus santaanae)". Environmental Conservation Online System. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
- ^ a b 65 FR 19686
- ^ a b c "California Fish Species - California Fish Website". calfish.ucdavis.edu. Retrieved 2022-10-22.
- ^ "Santa Ana sucker". www.biologicaldiversity.org. Retrieved 2022-10-22.
- ^ a b "Natural history". www.biologicaldiversity.org. Retrieved 2022-10-22.
- ^ Sahagun, Louis (22 August 2016). "Environmentalists to sue San Bernardino and Colton over the killing of threatened fish". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 23 August 2016.
- ^ "Santa Ana Sucker Conservation Team". SAWPA - Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority. Retrieved 2022-10-22.
- ^ 75 FR 77962 (December 14, 2010)
- "Catostomus santaanae". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 18 April 2006.
- Peter B. Moyle, Inland Fishes of California Revised ed. (University of California Press, 2002), pp. 182–185 ISBN 0520227549
- Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.) (2006). "Catostomus santaanae" in FishBase. April 2006 version.
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