Author: Anna Gurney
North Carolina is home to 28 native sucker fish species, with 15 of those being a redhorse variety. Redhorse and other suckers are not just a forage fish for your favorite gamefish species— they are so much more. Redhorse are a group of pollution-sensitive species that serve as indicator species for river health.
Each spring, hundreds to thousands of redhorse and other sucker fishes throughout North Carolina take a trip upstream to their spawning areas in the headwaters. Redhorse are a critical piece of river ecosystems, performing a very important job. Similar to salmon out West, redhorse bring key nutrients from lower down our rivers to the headwaters during their spawning migrations. They deliver vital nutrients at the most critical time of the year when all sorts of aquatic plants and animals come out of dormancy and start absorbing nutrients to start their growing season. The redhorse eat these plants and small animals in downstream areas and then travel upstream where those nutrients, translated by the fish’s digestive system, are deposited in these headwaters.
Unlike salmon, adult redhorse do not immediately die after spawning. They come back over many years to spawn in the same headwaters (some of our largest redhorses can live for more than 25 years!). While spawning, redhorse eggs are eaten by a number of river critters. Without our redhorse, the productivity and growth of our rivers and streams would be limited, impacting everything from plants to your favorite game species.
Wildlife biologists across the state work to monitor and conserve these sensitive suckers. Your help finding spawning migrations in your local watershed would be very much appreciated. NCWRC’s Aquatic Wildlife Diversity Program coordinators ask anyone who sees any large migrations of sucker fish traveling upstream to contact us with a photo and location information to RestoringAquaticSpecies@ncwildlife.org.