Yea I am a minority group of people that love sucker fish. Not plecos. But suckers like the red horse and white sucker. There is a local river by me where I catch them, and I would like to keep some in a native tank. The question I have is, do they require flowing water to survive or if anyone has kept any can give advice. Thank you for your responses.
I got a question about Sucker fish.
- Thread starter Fishowner
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I have kept them, they require moderate aeration but a slight current is good as well, they like a sand substrate and will spend lots of time sifting through the sand.
Suckers are great aquarium fish, I don't know why more people don't keep them. I've kept Whites. Mine (7") did great in a 30 long with a sponge filter and HoB for aeration. Tank was a gravel substrate but I'd recommend sand instead. He ate flake straight from my fingers and sucked frozen foods out of a plastic syringe I target few him with. Did great in this tank with 4 creek chubs and a green sunfish until there was a disease outbreak that only the sunfish survived. I also kept a smaller one a few months ago but a white bass killed it. I attempted to rescue an injured ~14" Northern Hogsucker from my local stream last summer but it only lasted a couple days before dying of whatever wound it had, most likely a heron tried to fly off with it or a sadistic fisherman stabbed it. Plan on trying northern hogs again this summer.
I need a smaller species for my big 310 native tank....need something that wants to sift the sand around. I'd say judging from the general habitat they come from a small powerhead wouldn't hurt.
Most species would appreciate a powerhead but they don't need it. Suckers like Whites and many Redhorse species live in many local lakes and I've even seen Redhorse to depths of 40' in Lake Erie in the summer. Now fish like northern hogs and jumprocks that live in fast riffles would certainly prefer flow in a tank. Go dunk some crawlers on a small circle hook in slower pool slippery rock creek, you'll find yourself a nice little Redhorse that's adapted to less flow eventually. Although you may have to sift through some trophy 16-26" suckers first.