Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Lake chubsucker

Do any hatcheries raise lake chubsuckers? If not, why not? Does anyone know where I can locate some of these great forage fish? See notes below.

The lake chubsucker (Erimyzon sucetta) was favored by George Bennett "Management of Lakes and Ponds". His lengthy quote follows. "It is one of the most satisfactory forage fishes for bass in central IL. The adults rarely get more than 11" long are round cylindrical bodied, soft rayed (fins), golden color and capable of maintaining a sizable population in the presence of LMB". (Cody-Note: weeds are probably impt for this.) "In IL it begins spawning in late Mar early Apr and the fry are available at the time YOY bass are leaving the nest. It apparently fills a niche not occupied by any of the predatory or semi-predatory fishes. Its presence broadens the food web for basses. Chubsuckers are a clearwater species and do not roil the bottom; it is so retiring and unobtrusive that it is seldom seen except during height of the spawning season. It has been stocked w/ SMB for as long as 10 years where yields ranged from 27 to 89 lbs per acre. Lake chubsucker ranges from east MN to New England (so. Ontario) and south to FL & TX" (mostly in a area along Mississippi River).

Spawning. Spawning occurs from late Mar into July (72.5 to 85.1 deg). Eggs are scattered at random over all types of submerged living and dead vegetation including moss & filamentous algae. Number of eggs ranges from 3000 to 20000 per female. Young grow rapidly (up to 0.5mm/day). Young frequent weedy areas.
Life span 8 yrs, ave size is 6"-8" rarely over 10"-11", maximum size was a 15.1" specimen from FL.

They can tolerate low oxygen levels in winter kill lakes. They are hardy and tolerate handling stresses. Becker states it rarely overpopulates. Numerous references brag about its value as a forage species.

Beyer et.al 2003.LakeLine. Report stocking 200 lake chubsuckers into a renovated Big Muskego Lake in SE WI.

Why aren't they more popular today and why don't more hatcheries raise them??? What happened to them and where are they now?

Bill,

Contact Mike Robinson. He would know as he is a major bait supplier in the Midwest. There is alos a major bait supplier in Wisconsin know as Galon or something. However I don't recall anyone selling them as bait.

One possiblity is to contact a local state biologist and find out if they are common in any bodies of water in your area. I did this when bullhead Bob was looking for yellow bullhead and a local biologist told me what lakes in the are they were common in. In fact, he said sometimes they collect fish for university research studies when the are doing lake surveys.

They sound perfect! If you find anymore information on obtaining them, growing them, or stocking them please post it. Have you heard anything bad about them? As it sounds now I think I want them in my pond too. Thanks for the tip.

They do sound perfect for my environment. What are the drawbacks though. Does anyone know of a source in central Texas.

Found this link
http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/dfwmr/wildlife/endspec/lakechub.html

Says they are protected

Found a little info on chubsuckers. It seems they are very rare in most states. In places where they do occure its ussaly in low numbers, especialy if LMB are present. One pdf I just read said "the number of lake chubsuckers ussaly declines after 2-3 years after an impoundment is filled. Some aquatic vegatation along the shore is needed to provided escape cover". Sounds like it might have the same problem as shiners, work too well as food. I am still looking and will post results.

Bill is the lake chubsucker similiar to a creek chubsucker? If so they are big time trouble for reproduction of other species. I have them on a large Plantation I'm managing. THe ponds with them have low numbers of bluegill, and low RW on the bass. The ponds without are doing much better adn this is the only explantaion I have found to expalin the diff. We have been trying our best to get them out by gill netting. One pond had 45% of the electroshocked biomass in chubsuckers, not good. If not the same species or close relative sorry to waste your time.

Lake chubsucker and creek chubsucker are different species although similar looking fish.

Creek chubsucker is Erimyzon oblongus. Creek chubsuckers are less tolerant of silt than lake csuckers. Creek Cbsuckers are found more in small creeks than larger rivers or ponds/lakes where lk chubsuckers are typically found. Creek chubsuckers spawn commonly in creeks similar to methods of white suckers.

It does not make sense that the bass would not feed heavily on them if 45% of the electroshocked biomass was chubsuckers. I would think LMB would easily eliminate chubsuckers and not allow them to overpopulate. Puzzling. Greg how big were the sizes in your electro. sample?

Round bodied soft fined fish 6"-9" long would seem ideal food for medium sized bass. Nest spawners of the sunfish family are pretty defensive of nests and should under most instances keep occassional invaders chased away. But an overabundant population of chubsuckers could probably rob eggs and fry from nests; overabundant bgills do it why not chubsuckers.

G. Bennett did not mention any problems of lake chubsuckers suppressing fish reproduction. But anything is possible. I'm trying to find out a little more about these fish which is why I created this topic. There must be some negatives about them because they are not very popular. Hopefully Mike R. will add some of his experience.

Cecil - Ohio's fish ID guide does not even list them, however they are in Fishes Of Ohio - Trautman. I have been 'looking out' for these fish for 30 yrs. My local game warden when I asked about them today did not even know what they were let alone where one might find them. But he did know who Geo. Bennett was. Most who I ask are going to first say "you mean creek chub"?; dah.

up here in michigan i have a mess of them in my creek in the backyare!

Bill I found this from a fish supplier who supplies a variety of native fish for aquarists. Here's the link. HERE. Scroll down a good ways. They come in a lot of two and run $30. But if you notice all of his fish are expensive...he catches them all by hand/net. So I'm sure you could get them cheaper. He's a real nice guy. Maybe you could contact him and ask him if he knows anything about them. I'm sure he does.

Chris

Josh - I suspect that the fish you refer to in your creek are creek chubs not chubsuckers. There is a difference between the two types. What distinct feature do the fish in your creek have that leads you to think you have chubsuckers in your creek? Can you easily catch them on a hook and line with worms?. Do some of the bigger adults in spring have spines on their snout? Is the mouth fairly large and some get rosey colored areas on the body in spring?

Bumping this old thread to see if anyone currently has a source for lake chubsuckers.

Other than the one year Todd Overton offered them for sale and I bought them from him, I have not seen any other fish hatcheries offer them for sale at a remotely reasonable price. Greg Grimes electroshocks them up regularly and tried to salvage some adults, but they didn't handle well and he lost them. As of right now, the only source I know of that has them is Sachs Systems Aquaculture At $12.95 a pop though, they are PRICEY! Maybe if you buy 10+ they may lower the price. When I bought mine from Todd, I only stocked 25 and they have thrived.

While doing a search on them, I came across this article: http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2004-02-26/sports/0402260216_1_fish-large-bass-bass-angler Talks about FL Fish and Wild stocking LCS into a lake for forage for large bass. They stocked 2,000 of them into a 200 or so acre lake. Not sure where they obtained their stock from though...

A couple of other Pond Boss threads talking about LCS:

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=159317&fpart=1

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.ph...true#Post284219

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=159278&fpart=1

Thanks Travis. I will contact Sachs and inquire.

Depending on my success of collecting some LCS for you, I will see what I can do about sending some out your way.

I probably won't sleep well till then.