Fish
Shorthead Redhorse
Moxostoma macrolepidotum · also called shorthead redhorses
A shorthead redhorse noses along the gravel bottom of a flowing river, taking in mouthfuls of sediment with its downturned, sucker-like mouth and sorting out the edible invertebrates hidden within before letting the rest drift away in a small cloud behind it.
Overview
The shorthead redhorse, Moxostoma macrolepidotum, is a fish native to rivers and streams with moderate to fast current across a broad range of central and eastern North America. Its distinctively short, blunt head, sucker-mouthed bottom-feeding style, and status as one of the most widely distributed redhorse species make it a familiar presence across many of the continent’s flowing waterways.
A feeding style built into the whole family
Rather than actively hunting individual prey, the shorthead redhorse processes river-bottom sediment in bulk, relying on its specialised sucker mouth to extract whatever edible material happens to be mixed in with the sand and gravel it feeds on.
Status
Least Concern — widespread and abundant across suitable river and stream habitat throughout central and eastern North America.
Shorthead Redhorse: common questions
Why is it called a shorthead redhorse?
This species has a notably short, blunt head relative to its overall body length compared with several other redhorse species sharing the same rivers, a proportional difference that gives the species its common name and serves as one of the more useful features for distinguishing it from its close relatives in the field.
How does a shorthead redhorse feed?
This species feeds by taking mouthfuls of sediment directly from the river bottom using its downturned, sucker-like mouth, sorting out edible invertebrates and organic matter while expelling the indigestible sediment, a feeding method shared broadly across the sucker family this species belongs to.
Why do shorthead redhorse fins turn brighter red during spawning?
Like several other redhorse species, this species develops noticeably brighter reddish-orange fin colouration during the spawning season, a seasonal change likely driven by hormonal shifts tied to reproduction, though the fins carry some reddish tone throughout the year even outside of the breeding period.
How widespread is the shorthead redhorse?
This species has one of the broadest geographic ranges of any redhorse species, found across a vast stretch of central and eastern North America, a distribution made possible by its tolerance for a range of moderate to fast-flowing river and stream conditions across many separate drainage systems.