A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
Hypentelium nigricans
Chunky, bottom dweller about 5 inches long. Mouth similar to an elephant seal with vacuum-like mouth, brown body with darker bands.
It can be found in or next to riffle areas of the Clinch River. 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 themselves downstream from its activities so as to garner disturbed food fragments.~Wikipedia
Spotted on Mar 9, 2016
Submitted on Mar 13, 2016
3 Comments
Project Noah Fact of the Day: Hogsuckers use their funnel shaped mouths to vacuum up algae, aquatic insects, fish eggs, snails, and decomposing plant and animal matter from the river bottom.
Northern hogsucker (Hypentelium nigricans) spotted in Virginia, USA by PN user Lisa Powers.
https://www.facebook.com/projectnoah/pho...
Thanks Jim! :-)
Nice series, Lisa!