™

Fishin' for Facts: Toad Lumpsucker

Scientific name: Eumicrotremus phrynoides

• Size

• Where are they found?

A polar bear in a submersible or a beluga whale could find them in their own back yard. The toad lumpsucker is found in the North Pacific, southeastern Bering Sea and from the central Aleutian Islands to the northern Gulf of Alaska.

The toad lumpsucker is found on or near the ocean bottom at depths from 226 to 558 ft (69 to 170 m) down.

• What do they eat?

What do you feed a hungry pack of toad lumpsuckers? They probably eat animals found on the ocean bottom including crustaceans (like crabs or shrimp), mollusks and polychaetes (ocean worms).

• Highlights

      Such an unfortunate name for such a cute little fish. Speaking of suckers, the toad lumpsucker has a modified pelvic fins (see photo on the left. Pelvic fins are on a fish's underside) that helps it attach to rocks, broken shells...and this guy’s fingers!  

 

    Other cool things....some lumpsuckers inflate their bodies like a balloon by swallowing air or water (think of a pufferfish). This may be a way to protect themselves from predators. 

    And the male toadies guard the eggs.

 

    Very little else is known about any of the toad lumpsuckers or the other

lumpsucker cousins like this Pacific Spiny lumpsucker...can you see the family resemblence?

 

 

    Photos courtesy of Alaska Fisheries Science Center NMFS

 

 

Citation: Musgrave, Ruth A. California Toad Lumpsucker. Fishin' for Facts. WhaleTimes, Inc. (whaletimes.org) 2011

And Don't forget to celebrate WhaleTimes' Hagfish Day October 19, 2011...then October 17, 2012...then...(every third Weds. In Oct)

---

Back to the Fishin' for Facts page                Back to the Hagfish Day page

or....