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aquarium it is even more hardy than the common catfish and 

 often lies on its side for hours as if dead, or remains suspended 

 in the water in various odd positions. It does not much annoy 

 other fishes with which it is kept. The stone catfishes are also 

 known by the name of mad toms. 



Family Catostomidae. 



Suckers. 



The suckers are quite closely related to the carps and min- 

 nows. The body is oblong, covered with cycloid scales ; the 

 maxillary is perfect. The anterior vertebrae are grown 

 together; an auditory ossicle is present. The head is naked, 

 the jaws are suctorial with a protractile mouth in most cases ; 

 lips thick, fleshy, often cleft into lobes. The teeth are in one 

 to three series on the lower pharyngeal bone. The air bladder 

 is divided into two or three parts by constriction. The tail is 

 forked ; the adipose fin absent. The alimentary canal long, 

 without caeca. 



Suckers prefer quiet waters and ascend into the smaller streams 

 to spawn, often in immense numbers. It is then that they are 

 mostly taken, either by netting or spearing, or even by hand, 

 and then also (in early spring), their flesh is edible, at other 

 times they are very soft. They feed by sucking up the mud 

 and thus picking out small organisms and decaying matter. 

 We have here about three genera with three or four species. 



Catostomus commersonii (Lac). 

 White Sucker. 



In the common white or brook sucker the air bladder is in 

 two parts ; the scales are small, increasing in size posteriorly. 

 The small mouth is inferior, the under lip bilobed. Color 

 brownish, olivaceous above, silvery below ; the young are 

 much blotched and marked on sides and back. D. twelve rays. 

 Scale formula 10-64 to 70-9. 



Found all over the eastern United States ; common. It is 

 occasionally caught on the hook. Young ones, in captivity, 

 though they always grub about, and though they take food 

 offered them, do not thrive and gradually starve. They 

 remain wild and take alarm easily and often leap out of their 



