Big up to the California Academy of Sciences for letting us film their lumpsuckers.
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Pacific cod, sablefish, and lancefish are known predators of pacific spiny lumpsuckers.
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Pacific spiny lumpsuckers feed on slow crustaceans, worms, and mollusks on the sea floor.
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Eumicrotremus phrynoides and Eumicrotremus orbis – lumpsuckers demonstrating adhesive pelvic discs. Gobies, remoras and lumpsuckers have suckers which are modified fins. These fishes use their suckers to cling to substrata or to bigger fishes. In gobies the disc-shaped sucker is formed from fused pelvic fins.
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Nevertheless, the lumpsuckers do have a C-startle response, which is apparently mediated by other hindbrain cells. Hatchlings have well-developed pectoral fins and adhesive pelvic discs, which the fish use to cling to rocks in shallow water. Young fish remain in shallow, warmer water until fully developed. Pacific cod and sablefish are known predators of lumpsuckers.
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The tidepools here are rich in limpets, lumpsuckers, blennies, chitons, nudibranches, sea stars, sea slugs, sea cucumbers, hermit crabs and an array of other tidepool dwellers.
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Pacific spiny lumpsuckers are most commonly found attached to solid objects and are ineffective swimmers. They are considered harmless to humans. Pacific spiny lumpsucker with modified fin visible.
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Other fish suggested as potential prey include lumpsuckers, shorthorn sculpins, cod, sand lance, as well as crustaceans. The young of the great auk are believed to have eaten plankton and, possibly, fish and crustaceans regurgitated by adults.
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In terms of length, lumpsuckers range in size from in the case of Lethotremus awae up to more than in the case of the common lumpsucker Cyclopterus lumpus. Eumicrotremus phrynoides and Eumicrotremus orbis demonstrating adhesive pelvic discs.
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The first of the two dorsal fins is spinous, with 4-8 spines; in some species, this fin is completely overgrown with skin and therefore not visible. While the lateral line in lumpsuckers is otherwise reduced or absent, it is well developed in the head; some species even have tubular, whisker-like external projections of the opercular canal, which is a part of the cranial lateral line system. The relatively small mouths of lumpsuckers are lined with narrow rows of small conical teeth. The gas bladder is absent.
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Lumpsuckers are a poorly studied group, with little known of their behaviour and biology. At least some species are known to travel great distances in order to spawn in shallow, intertidal waters (from December to June in the smooth lumpsucker); this may well be true of all species. Males are also known to guard the brood of spherical eggs. One of the peculiarities of Lumpsuckers' neural system is that they lack Mauthner cell neurons in their hindbrain, while these cells are present in virtually all other teleost fish.
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Mauthner cells first appear in lampreys (being absent in hagfish and lancelets), and are present in virtually all teleost fish, as well as in amphibians (including postmetamorphic frogs and toads). Some fish, such as lumpsuckers, seem to have lost the Mauthner cells however.
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Amphidromous gobies particularly use their suckers for climbing through waterfalls during their developmental migrations. In remoras the sucker is a modified dorsal fin. In lumpsuckers, also known as lumpfish, the sucker is formed from modified pelvic fins, located ventrally, and behind the pectoral fins. A fish family the Catostomidae are known as suckers.
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Biological control methods to manage parasites are already being used, such as cleaner fish (e.g. lumpsuckers and wrasse) to control sea lice populations in salmon farming. Models are being used to help with spatial planning and siting of fish farms in order to minimize impact. The decline in wild fish stocks has increased the demand for farmed fish.
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As their appearance might suggest, lumpsuckers are poor swimmers. Most species are benthic; that is, they spend most of their time on or near the bottom. The fish are found on rocky or muddy substrates, where their colouration allows for effective camouflage. Members of the family are found primarily on the continental shelf or slope, at depths down to .
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Pacific spiny lumpsuckers are found from northern Washington state to the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. They can also be found in the Chukchi Sea and around northern Japan. This species inhabits a wide variety of habitats, including eelgrass beds, rocky reefs, kelp patches, shallow bays, and docks. They can be found in near shore waters to a depth of .
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Others taken with some preference may include salmonids and cod and their allies, both families known to obtain relatively large body sizes and occasional habituate shallow water, as well as lumpsuckers, because they are benthic. In Greenland, the leading prey species is the salmonid, the Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus), which comprised 27.2% of 660 prey items. The secondary prey in Greenland was recorded as two species of cod.
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Cyclopterus lumpus, the lumpsucker or lumpfish, is a species of marine fish in the family Cyclopteridae (lumpsuckers). It is the only member of the genus Cyclopterus. It is found in the North Atlantic and adjacent parts of the Arctic Ocean, ranging as far south as Chesapeake Bay (rare south of New Jersey) on the North American coast and Spain (rare south of the English Channel) on the European coast.
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Opponents claim that the greater density comes from an influx of nearby fish rather than increased total population. Research on rockfish populations on oil rigs offshore California supports both theories. In the North Sea, lumpsuckers have been found to use platforms for reproduction, brooding eggs directly on the structure itself. The high fish populations make both active and inactive oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico and offshore California popular destinations for sport fishermen and the charter fishing industry.
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F. Palmer. Fish are also caught after being battered, injured and killed at power plants, from large-scale fishing nets or are taken directly from human fishermen. Benthic fish tend to cling to rocks or sandy soil in shallows may be more vulnerable since they tend to look downward rather upward and are less competent at escaping predators coming from above the water's surface. Therefore, lurking benthic fish such as lumpsuckers are more vulnerable than many.
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The Cyclopteridae are a family of marine fishes, commonly known as lumpsuckers or lumpfish, in the order Scorpaeniformes. They are found in the cold waters of the Arctic, North Atlantic, and North Pacific oceans. The greatest number of species are found in the North Pacific. The family name Cyclopteridae derives from the Greek words κύκλος (kyklos), meaning "circle", and πτέρυξ (pteryx), meaning "wing" or "fin", in reference to the circle-shaped pectoral fins of most of the fish that comprise this family.
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The most distinctive aspects of gobiid morphology are the fused pelvic fins that form a disc-shaped sucker. This sucker is functionally analogous to the dorsal fin sucker possessed by the remoras or the pelvic fin sucker of the lumpsuckers, but is anatomically distinct; these similarities are the product of convergent evolution. The species in this family can often be seen using the sucker to adhere to rocks and corals, and in aquariums they will stick to glass walls of the tank, as well.
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Porbeagle teeth are suited for grasping fish, with a long central cusp and a tiny cusplet on either side. The porbeagle is an active predator that predominantly ingests small to medium-sized bony fishes. It chases down pelagic fishes such as lancet fish, mackerel, pilchards, herring, and sauries, and forages near the bottom for groundfishes such as cod, hake, icefish, dories, sand lances, lumpsuckers, and flatfish. Cephalopods, particularly squid, also form an important component of its diet, while smaller sharks such as spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias) and tope sharks (Galeorhinus galeus) are rarely taken.
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Aptocyclus ventricosus, inflated due to barotrauma Lumpsuckers are named appropriately enough; their portly bodies are nearly spherical with generally drab coloration and lithic patterns. The "sucker" part refers to the fish's modified pelvic fins, which have evolved into adhesive discs (located ventrally, behind the pectoral fins); the fish use these discs to adhere to the substrate. Many species have bony, wart-like tubercles adorning the head and body; these are important taxonomic features of the family. The simple, rounded fins are small with the exception of the broad, fan-like pectorals, which actually extend ventrally.
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