The New Student's Reference Work/Sucker (fishes)

Sucker, the name given a number of freshwater fishes of North America, with thick, fleshy lips bordering a sucking mouth. There are about 60 species in the family, which embraces the buffalo-fishes of the Mississippi Valley, the common suckers and the mullet or red horse. They feed on plants and small water-animals. The common or white sucker reaches a length of 18 inches, and is very abundant in streams from Canada to Montana and Florida. They are eaten, but the flesh is rather tasteless and bony. The remora (q.v.), having a sucking-disk on the back of the head, is also sometimes called a sucker, and the name is also applied to the hag and certain other fishes.