Lost River Sucker
Encyclopedia
The Lost River Sucker is a species of ray-finned fish in the family Catostomidae
. It is the only living member of the genus Deltistes. It is found only in California
and Oregon
in the United States
. Its population is much reduced from historical numbers for a number of reasons. It is a federally listed endangered species
of the United States.
, capable of reaching one meter in length. It can be identified by its long snout with a small hump on top. It is dark on the back and sides and whitish or yellowish on the belly. Its lifespan can exceed 40 years. It does not reach sexual maturity until six to 14 years of age, most maturing around age nine.
s and substrates of gravel and cobble. Spawning occurs in March, April, and May. The female contains many eggs, up to 235,000, and spawns with several males. The fish spawns several times during its life. The eggs incubate on the stream bottoms for two or three weeks and the larval stage is 40 to 50 days long. The juveniles find shelter in emergent vegetation near the shore. The sucker eats a variety of animal material including zooplankton
, various other invertebrate
s, and periphyton
.
This fish is endemic to the Upper Klamath Basin
straddling the border between southern Oregon and northern California. Its distribution included Upper Klamath Lake, its tributaries
, and most of the creeks that drained into it, as well as the Lost River
, Tule Lake
, Lower Klamath Lake
, Sheepy Lake, and Clear Lake
. It was historically abundant in the basin. It was the most common food fish in the area, providing food for the Klamath and Modoc people, as well as local settlers, who also fed it to their livestock. It supported a cannery, which processed it for food and oil.
Today the fish can be found in Upper Klamath Lake and its tributaries, Clear Lake and its tributaries, Tule Lake, part of the Lost River below the Anderson-Rose Dam, and part of the Klamath River
. Its range declined as dams were built, flows were diverted, marsh
es were dredged and drained, and exotic species
were introduced to the area. The landscape changed as it was altered for agriculture, livestock were transported in, trees were taken for timber
, and riparian
vegetation was cleared. Eutrophication
occurred in Upper Klamath Lake, a major cause of the decline of this and other local fish, and a major reason that the sucker is not recovering.
and restricted the movement of the fish, isolating populations from one another. A number of water diversion projects reduced river flows, causing streams to become shallower and causing stagnation in some areas, possibly having a negative effect on the fish. Irrigation
canals have been known to trap suckers and their pumps can cause mortality. Fish larva
e also become trapped.
About 70% of the wetland
s surrounding Upper Klamath Lake have been impounded and drained, eliminating much of the habitat used by juvenile suckers during their development. Healthy wetlands also absorb contaminants such as phosphorus, which in excessive amounts causes blooms
of organisms, especially the cyanobacterium Aphanizomenon flos-aquae
. These blooms have led to sucker die-offs because the blooms deplete the dissolved oxygen in the water. The water quality in Upper Klamath Lake is poor, especially during the summer. While the sucker is relatively tolerant of poor water quality, compared to other fish, there is a history of multiple sucker die-offs.
Introduced fish species in the area include brown bullhead
, fathead minnow
, yellow perch
, Sacramento perch
, pumpkinseed
, bluegill
, green sunfish
, largemouth bass
, and brown trout
. A number of these species readily feed upon juvenile suckers, especially the fathead minnow and yellow perch. These species may also compete
with the sucker for food and space.
Pathogen
s may cause morbidity and mortality
in the fish. Many have been observed with columnaris
or "gill rot", a disease featuring lesions on the gills caused by Flavobacterium columnare
. This is believed to be associated with lowered resistance to the bacterium from the fish, caused by ammonia-contaminated waters. Parasitism by a copepod
in genus Lernea is becoming more common. This copepod feeds upon the living fish, causing wounds.
Conservation efforts include habitat restoration projects, hundreds of which have been started in the Upper Klamath Basin. It is too early to know whether these interventions will increase populations of the sucker.
Catostomidae
Catostomidae is the sucker family of the order Cypriniformes. There are 80 species in this family of freshwater fishes. Catostomidae are found in North America, east central China, and eastern Siberia...
. It is the only living member of the genus Deltistes. It is found only in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
and Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Its population is much reduced from historical numbers for a number of reasons. It is a federally listed endangered species
Endangered species
An endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters...
of the United States.
Description
This fish is one of the largest suckersCatostomidae
Catostomidae is the sucker family of the order Cypriniformes. There are 80 species in this family of freshwater fishes. Catostomidae are found in North America, east central China, and eastern Siberia...
, capable of reaching one meter in length. It can be identified by its long snout with a small hump on top. It is dark on the back and sides and whitish or yellowish on the belly. Its lifespan can exceed 40 years. It does not reach sexual maturity until six to 14 years of age, most maturing around age nine.
Distribution and Habitat
The sucker prefers deep lakes and pools and fast currents. It goes to the shoreline to obtain food and shelter in the vegetation. It spawns in streams with riffleRiffle
A Riffle is a short, relatively shallow and coarse-bedded length of stream over which the stream flows at higher velocity and higher turbulence than it normally does in comparison to a pool....
s and substrates of gravel and cobble. Spawning occurs in March, April, and May. The female contains many eggs, up to 235,000, and spawns with several males. The fish spawns several times during its life. The eggs incubate on the stream bottoms for two or three weeks and the larval stage is 40 to 50 days long. The juveniles find shelter in emergent vegetation near the shore. The sucker eats a variety of animal material including zooplankton
Zooplankton
Zooplankton are heterotrophic plankton. Plankton are organisms drifting in oceans, seas, and bodies of fresh water. The word "zooplankton" is derived from the Greek zoon , meaning "animal", and , meaning "wanderer" or "drifter"...
, various other invertebrate
Invertebrate
An invertebrate is an animal without a backbone. The group includes 97% of all animal species – all animals except those in the chordate subphylum Vertebrata .Invertebrates form a paraphyletic group...
s, and periphyton
Periphyton
Periphyton are a complex mixture of algae, cyanobacteria, heterotrophic microbes, and detritus that are attached to submerged surfaces in most aquatic ecosystems. It serves as an important food source for invertebrates, tadpoles, and some fish. It can also absorb contaminants; removing them from...
.
This fish is endemic to the Upper Klamath Basin
Upper Klamath Lake
Upper Klamath Lake is a large, shallow freshwater lake east of the Cascade Range in south central Oregon in the United States. The largest freshwater body in Oregon, it is approximately 20 mi long and 8 mi wide and extends northwest from the city of Klamath Falls...
straddling the border between southern Oregon and northern California. Its distribution included Upper Klamath Lake, its tributaries
Tributary
A tributary or affluent is a stream or river that flows into a main stem river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean...
, and most of the creeks that drained into it, as well as the Lost River
Lost River (California)
Lost River begins and ends in a closed basin in northern California and southwestern Oregon in the United States. The river, long, flows in an arc from Clear Lake Reservoir in Modoc County, California, through Klamath County, Oregon to Tule Lake in Siskiyou County...
, Tule Lake
Tule Lake
Tule Lake is an intermittent lake covering an area of , long and across, in northeastern Siskiyou County and northwestern Modoc County in California, along the border with Oregon.-Geography:Tule Lake is fed by the Lost River...
, Lower Klamath Lake
Lower Klamath Lake
Lower Klamath Lake is a lake in Siskiyou County, California, that currently serves to hold overflow water for irrigation. At one time it was connected to Upper Klamath Lake....
, Sheepy Lake, and Clear Lake
Clear Lake National Wildlife Refuge
Clear Lake National Wildlife Refuge in northeastern California consists of approximately of open water surrounded by over of upland bunchgrass, low sagebrush, and juniper habitat...
. It was historically abundant in the basin. It was the most common food fish in the area, providing food for the Klamath and Modoc people, as well as local settlers, who also fed it to their livestock. It supported a cannery, which processed it for food and oil.
Today the fish can be found in Upper Klamath Lake and its tributaries, Clear Lake and its tributaries, Tule Lake, part of the Lost River below the Anderson-Rose Dam, and part of the Klamath River
Klamath River
The Klamath River is an American river that flows southwest through Oregon and northern California, cutting through the Cascade Range to empty into the Pacific Ocean. The river drains an extensive watershed of almost that stretches from the high desert country of the Great Basin to the temperate...
. Its range declined as dams were built, flows were diverted, marsh
Marsh
In geography, a marsh, or morass, is a type of wetland that is subject to frequent or continuous flood. Typically the water is shallow and features grasses, rushes, reeds, typhas, sedges, other herbaceous plants, and moss....
es were dredged and drained, and exotic species
Introduced species
An introduced species — or neozoon, alien, exotic, non-indigenous, or non-native species, or simply an introduction, is a species living outside its indigenous or native distributional range, and has arrived in an ecosystem or plant community by human activity, either deliberate or accidental...
were introduced to the area. The landscape changed as it was altered for agriculture, livestock were transported in, trees were taken for timber
Timber
Timber may refer to:* Timber, a term common in the United Kingdom and Australia for wood materials * Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S...
, and riparian
River
A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...
vegetation was cleared. Eutrophication
Eutrophication
Eutrophication or more precisely hypertrophication, is the movement of a body of water′s trophic status in the direction of increasing plant biomass, by the addition of artificial or natural substances, such as nitrates and phosphates, through fertilizers or sewage, to an aquatic system...
occurred in Upper Klamath Lake, a major cause of the decline of this and other local fish, and a major reason that the sucker is not recovering.
Conservation
Much of the sucker's spawning habitat was destroyed when the first dams were built. Dams also created habitat fragmentationHabitat fragmentation
Habitat fragmentation as the name implies, describes the emergence of discontinuities in an organism's preferred environment , causing population fragmentation...
and restricted the movement of the fish, isolating populations from one another. A number of water diversion projects reduced river flows, causing streams to become shallower and causing stagnation in some areas, possibly having a negative effect on the fish. Irrigation
Irrigation
Irrigation may be defined as the science of artificial application of water to the land or soil. It is used to assist in the growing of agricultural crops, maintenance of landscapes, and revegetation of disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall...
canals have been known to trap suckers and their pumps can cause mortality. Fish larva
Larva
A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle...
e also become trapped.
About 70% of the wetland
Wetland
A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....
s surrounding Upper Klamath Lake have been impounded and drained, eliminating much of the habitat used by juvenile suckers during their development. Healthy wetlands also absorb contaminants such as phosphorus, which in excessive amounts causes blooms
Algal bloom
An algal bloom is a rapid increase or accumulation in the population of algae in an aquatic system. Algal blooms may occur in freshwater as well as marine environments. Typically, only one or a small number of phytoplankton species are involved, and some blooms may be recognized by discoloration...
of organisms, especially the cyanobacterium Aphanizomenon flos-aquae
Aphanizomenon flos-aquae
Aphanizomenon flos-aquae is a freshwater species of cyanobacteria. Cyanobacteria are an ancient clade of bacterial microphyte, part of the cyanobacteria phylum.AFA as a species has both toxic and nontoxic forms...
. These blooms have led to sucker die-offs because the blooms deplete the dissolved oxygen in the water. The water quality in Upper Klamath Lake is poor, especially during the summer. While the sucker is relatively tolerant of poor water quality, compared to other fish, there is a history of multiple sucker die-offs.
Introduced fish species in the area include brown bullhead
Brown bullhead
The brown bullhead, Ameiurus nebulosus, is a fish of the Ictaluridae family that is widely distributed in North America. It is a species of bullhead catfish and is similar to the black bullhead and yellow bullhead...
, fathead minnow
Fathead minnow
The fathead minnow , is a species of temperate freshwater fish belonging to the Pimephales genus of the cyprinid family. The natural geographic range extends throughout much of North America, from central Canada south along the Rockies to Texas, and east to Virginia and the Northeastern United...
, yellow perch
Yellow perch
The yellow perch is a species of perch found in the United States and Canada, where it is often referred to by the shortform perch. Yellow perch look similar to the European perch, but are paler and more yellowish, with less red in the fins. They have six to eight dark, vertical bars on their sides...
, Sacramento perch
Sacramento perch
The Sacramento perch is a sunfish native to the Sacramento–San Joaquin, Pajaro, and Salinas River areas in California but widely introduced throughout the western United States....
, pumpkinseed
Pumpkinseed
The pumpkinseed sunfish is a freshwater fish of the sunfish family of order Perciformes. It is also referred to as "pond perch", "common sunfish", "punkys", and "sunny".-Range and distribution:...
, bluegill
Bluegill
The Bluegill is a species of freshwater fish sometimes referred to as bream, brim, or copper nose. It is a member of the sunfish family Centrarchidae of the order Perciformes.-Range and distribution:...
, green sunfish
Green sunfish
The green sunfish is a species of freshwater fish in the sunfish family of order Perciformes. A panfish popular with anglers, the green sunfish is also kept as an aquarium fish by hobbyists. They are usually caught by accident, while fishing for other game fish...
, largemouth bass
Largemouth bass
The largemouth bass is a species of black bass in the sunfish family native to North America . It is also known as widemouth bass, bigmouth, black bass, bucketmouth, Potter's fish, Florida bass, Florida largemouth, green bass, green trout, linesides, Oswego bass, southern largemouth...
, and brown trout
Brown trout
The brown trout and the sea trout are fish of the same species....
. A number of these species readily feed upon juvenile suckers, especially the fathead minnow and yellow perch. These species may also compete
Competition (biology)
Competition is an interaction between organisms or species, in which the fitness of one is lowered by the presence of another. Limited supply of at least one resource used by both is required. Competition both within and between species is an important topic in ecology, especially community ecology...
with the sucker for food and space.
Pathogen
Pathogen
A pathogen gignomai "I give birth to") or infectious agent — colloquially, a germ — is a microbe or microorganism such as a virus, bacterium, prion, or fungus that causes disease in its animal or plant host...
s may cause morbidity and mortality
Mortality
Mortality is the condition of being mortal, or susceptible to death; the opposite of immortality.It may also refer to:* Mortality rate, a measure of the number of deaths in a given population...
in the fish. Many have been observed with columnaris
Columnaris
Columnaris is a symptom of disease in fish which results from an infection caused by the gram negative, aerobic, rod shaped bacterium Flavobacterium columnare. It was previously known by the names of bacillus columnaris, chondrococcus columnaris, cytophaga columnaris and flexibacter columnaris...
or "gill rot", a disease featuring lesions on the gills caused by Flavobacterium columnare
Flavobacterium columnare
Flavobacterium columnare is a thin Gram-negative rod bacterium of the genus Flavobacterium. The name derives from the way in which the organism grows in rhizoid columnar formations....
. This is believed to be associated with lowered resistance to the bacterium from the fish, caused by ammonia-contaminated waters. Parasitism by a copepod
Copepod
Copepods are a group of small crustaceans found in the sea and nearly every freshwater habitat. Some species are planktonic , some are benthic , and some continental species may live in limno-terrestrial habitats and other wet terrestrial places, such as swamps, under leaf fall in wet forests,...
in genus Lernea is becoming more common. This copepod feeds upon the living fish, causing wounds.
Conservation efforts include habitat restoration projects, hundreds of which have been started in the Upper Klamath Basin. It is too early to know whether these interventions will increase populations of the sucker.
External links
- Gimenez Dixon, M. 1996. Deltistes luxatus. 2011 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 4 October 2011.