Sacramento Sucker
Sacramento suckers are bottom-dwellers. They live along the bottoms of rivers and lakes connected with the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers of California.
Generally, Sacramento suckers grow to be about two feet (60 centimeters) long and weigh up to four pounds (nearly two kilograms). They have long, streamlined bodies, a number of fins to help them swim, and thick-lipped mouths designed for sucking for food.
Sacramento suckers move through the water because of their many fins. Their caudal, or tail, fins swish from side to side to propel these fish through water, while their dorsal and anal, or back and belly, fins work to keep these fish balanced in the water.
Sacramento suckers have mouths like the ends of vacuum cleaners. Because they suck up everything with which they come in contact, they are not very picky eaters. Their diet includes a variety of insect larvae, worms, fish eggs, and vegetation. This kind of meat and plant diet causes Sacramento suckers to be classified as omnivores, or animals which eat both meat and plants.
In the springtime, Sacramento suckers migrate upstream to spawn, or mate. Sometimes one female will meet with two or three males for mating. The female releases her eggs and any of the two or three males may fertilize them. Sacramento sucker eggs have an incubation period of about one week. An incubation period is the growth period between the fertilizing and hatching of the eggs. Female Sacramento suckers may release up to 100,000 eggs.
Like other fish, Sacramento suckers must have oxygen to survive. Unlike humans, who have lungs and are able to process oxygen from the air, Sacramento suckers have to find the oxygen they need from the water in which they live. Sacramento suckers take water into their mouths, use the oxygen in the water, and filter the waste chemicals out through the gills on the sides of their heads.
The life span of Sacramento suckers is unknown.
Source: Encyclopedia of Animals
Generally, Sacramento suckers grow to be about two feet (60 centimeters) long and weigh up to four pounds (nearly two kilograms). They have long, streamlined bodies, a number of fins to help them swim, and thick-lipped mouths designed for sucking for food.
Sacramento suckers move through the water because of their many fins. Their caudal, or tail, fins swish from side to side to propel these fish through water, while their dorsal and anal, or back and belly, fins work to keep these fish balanced in the water.
Sacramento suckers have mouths like the ends of vacuum cleaners. Because they suck up everything with which they come in contact, they are not very picky eaters. Their diet includes a variety of insect larvae, worms, fish eggs, and vegetation. This kind of meat and plant diet causes Sacramento suckers to be classified as omnivores, or animals which eat both meat and plants.
In the springtime, Sacramento suckers migrate upstream to spawn, or mate. Sometimes one female will meet with two or three males for mating. The female releases her eggs and any of the two or three males may fertilize them. Sacramento sucker eggs have an incubation period of about one week. An incubation period is the growth period between the fertilizing and hatching of the eggs. Female Sacramento suckers may release up to 100,000 eggs.
Like other fish, Sacramento suckers must have oxygen to survive. Unlike humans, who have lungs and are able to process oxygen from the air, Sacramento suckers have to find the oxygen they need from the water in which they live. Sacramento suckers take water into their mouths, use the oxygen in the water, and filter the waste chemicals out through the gills on the sides of their heads.
The life span of Sacramento suckers is unknown.
Source: Encyclopedia of Animals
posted by James at 1:05 PM
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