Alan Davidson

Buffalo-Fish

Appears in
Oxford Companion to Food
Oxford Companion to Food

By Alan Davidson

Published 2014

  • About

buffalo-fish Ictiobus cyprinellus, the largest member of the sucker family Catostomidae in N. America, is abundant in shallow waters of lakes in the region of the Great Plains and has some commercial importance. A toothless creature, it feeds on plankton and is usually caught at a weight of 3–5 kg/5–10 lb.

This fish may also be called lake buffalo or blue buffalo, but is correctly termed ‘bigmouth buffalo’.

© the Estate of Alan Davidson 1999, 2006, 2014 © in the Editor’s contribution to the second and third editions, Oxford University Press 2006, 2014.