#2372 · 🐟 fish
Northern Hog Sucker
Hypentelium nigricans
10 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
- 1. © Emilio Concari · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 2. © beautifulbait · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 3. © Koaw Nature · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 4. © Emilio Concari · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 5. © Brian Gratwicke · CC BY 4.0
- 6. © Quinn · CC BY 4.0
- 7. © Cody Cromer · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 8. © kary · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 9. © Mitchel Buckner · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 10. © Austin D West · CC BY-NC 4.0
what is it?
The northern hogsucker ( Hypentelium nigricans ) is a freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the family Catostomidae, the suckers. It is native to the United States and Canada where it is found in streams and rivers. It prefers clear, fast-flowing water, where it can forage on the riverbed for crustaceans, mollusks, aquatic insects, algae and detritus. It turns over small pebbles and scrapes materials off rocks and sucks up the particles, and other species of fish sometimes station...
base stats
Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).
fun facts
- No confirmed wild sightings in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: you'd have to travel for this one.
- 3,878 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Scientifically named by Charles Alexandre Lesueur in 1817 (209 years ago).
fact sheet
- English
- Northern Hog Sucker
- scientific name
- Hypentelium nigricans
- class
- Actinopterygii
- order
- Cypriniformes
- family
- Catostomidae
- IUCN Red List
- LC · least concern
- sightings in NL
- 0
- sightings worldwide
- 3,878
- GBIF records in NL
- 0
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1817 by Charles Alexandre Lesueur
IUCN in Dutch: niet bedreigd. Blank means the sources don't say.
relatives· Catostomidae
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 58659, Wikidata Q3764682, GBIF 2358931, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.