Sucking-fish

Sucking-fish, a name sometimes given to the Remora (q.v.) or Echeneis, which has a dorsal sucker, and to other fishes which have a sucker formed by the union of the ventral fins—e.g. Cyclopterus lumpus, the Lumpsucker (q.v.). To the members of the carp-like Catostomidæ, almost exclusively confined to the rivers of North America, the name sucker is also applied, in allusion to their mode of sucking up their food, which consists of small aquatic animals.