Phenacobius mirabilis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Phenacobius mirabilis | |
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Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Cypriniformes |
| Family: | Leuciscidae |
| Subfamily: | Pogonichthyinae |
| Genus: | Phenacobius |
| Species: | P. mirabilis |
| Binomial name | |
| Phenacobius mirabilis (Girard, 1856) | |
| Synonyms[2] | |
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Phenacobius mirabilis, or the suckermouth minnow, is a species of freshwater ray-finned fish beloinging to the family Leuciscidae, the shiners, daces and minnows. This species is found in North America where it occurs in the Mississippi River basin from Ohio and West Virginia to Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico, and from southeastern Minnesota to northern Alabama and southern Oklahoma. It also occurs in the western Lake Erie drainage in Ohio.
The suckermouth minnow inhabits small- to moderate-size streams and rivers with clear to turbid water. They prefer a water temperature of 5–25 degrees Celsius[citation needed] and a mixed sandy gravel substrate. Streams with permanent flow and riffles with little siltation are ideal for this species. A highly adaptable species, it has been observed that these minnows can travel long distances. Suckermouth minnows often can be observed swimming along the sandy gravel, where they feed on chironomid midge larvae and pupae, caddisfly larvae and plankton. They can be cannibalistic.[3]
