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The Spring Migration of the Common White Sucker, Catostomus c. commersonnii (Lacepede), in Skaneateles Lake Inlet, New York

1942; American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists; Volume: 1942; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/1438203

1938-5110

Edward C. Raney, Dwight A. Webster,

Water Quality and Resources Studies

OBSERVATIONS over several years have shown that most streams which enter the Finger Lakes in central New York are visited annually by a run of large common suckers, Catostomus c. commersonnii (Lacepede). At this time suckers are taken by angling and by spearing. This is especially true of the lake suckers which reach a large size (see Table III). They are an important local food fish and might be utilized to a greater extent during the next few years. Much of the information to be presented below may be useful in connection with the pond culture of the muskalonge, Esox masquinongy. Here the problem involves supplying an abundance of living forage fishes of varying sizes for the young muskalonge after they have eaten the available stock of Daphnia and similar small animals. Suckers may be stripped, the eggs incubated in jars, and the young raised in small ponds until they are of the desired length. If eggs are obtained several times during the sucker run, a plentiful supply of all sizes of suckers would result. A number of incidental notes on these migrations in New York State waters have appeared in the literature. Surface (1899: 241) observed the run to last from the last of March to the middle of May in Cayuga .Lake Inlet. In Beebe Lake, at Ithaca, Stewart (1927: 150) found that the spawning season lasted approximately one month, and ended on May 25. Greeley and Bishop (1932: 81) report a spawning run as early as April 13 to 15 in Fish Creek at Pope's Mills. Greeley (1930: 77) also found them breeding as late as June 17 in Stacy Brook, a tributary of Lake Champlain. The most complete studies on migrating suckers are those by Dence (1937 and 1940) on the dwarf white sucker, Catostomus commersonnii utawana Mather. Mather (1886), Kendall and Dence (1929: 287), Greeley and Greene (1931: 84), Greeley and Bishop (1932: 81), and Greeley (1934: 101) have noted that the dwarf subspecies, utawana, spawns later than the common white sucker where they occur at the same locality in the Adirondack Mountains. Migrations of utawana usually occur in June. In Michigan some interesting data on sucker migration were obtained by Shetter (1938: 335). A two-way fish trap was operated continuously over one calendar year (1937) in Canada Creek, Presque Isle County. He found that the greatest number of suckers taken in April and May were moving downstream, possibly out of small lakes to spawning grounds. He also found a considerable number of suckers moving both upstream and downstream during September and October. During the spring of 1939 an attempt was made to obtain a picture of the sucker migration in Skaneateles Lake Inlet. This was possible since a weir had been installed in connection with research on the rainbow trout, Salmo gairdnerii, by Dr. H. John Rayner, of the Laboratory of Limnology and Fisheries, Cornell University. The sucker studies covered a general description of the main characteristics of the run, and included the length