Northern Hogsucker

Family: 
Catostomidae (suckers) in the order Cypriniformes (carps, minnows and loaches)
Description: 

Medium-sized sucker with large, square head. Head concave between eyes, lips highly protrusable and covered with bumps. Mouth is at tip of snout on bottom. Eye is much closer to the rear edge of the gill cover than it is to the tip of the snout. Usually has four dark crossbars. Slender-bodied. Forked tail.

Size: 
Total length: 8 to 15 inches; maximum about 17 inches.
Habitat and conservation: 
Inhabits permanent streams with moderate to swift current, clear water, gravel or rubble bottom. Usually found in riffles, also found in pools with current. This species’ coloration makes it almost invisible when in rests on a gravel stream bed.
Foods: 
An energetic feeder, overturning rocks and stirring up the bottom as it forages for immature aquatic insects and other bottom life with its fleshy, sucking lips.
Distribution in Missouri: 
Abundant and widely distributed in Ozarks. Range extends northeastward from the Ozarks into prairie tributaries of the upper Mississippi River. Also found in Moniteau Creek (Moniteau County) and Cedar Creek (Boone and Callaway counties.).
Status: 
A game fish; one of the most abundant and widely distributed stream fishes in the Ozarks. Sometimes called "hog molly" and "box head."
Life cycle: 
Individuals can live for 11 years.
Human connections: 
This game fish is seldom taken on a baited hook but may be caught by gigging, snagging and snaring. It's a less desirable food fish than other suckers, since much of its bulk is made up of the bony head, so there is less usable meat.
Ecosystem connections: 
Other fishes, especially the smallmouth bass, longear sunfish and various minnow, commonly follow foraging hogsuckers to feed on the small organisms exposed by the hogsucker's energetic rooting.