E. sucetta reportedly scatters its eggs randomly over aquatic vegetation and submerged grass in ponds [5] or over gravelly areas cleared by males.

[6] While not in acute danger, the chubsucker faces habitat disturbance due to siltation caused by agricultural practices[6] as well as coal ash spills.

[9] In some of these areas, it is possible that the fish is still around in small numbers, but it is very difficult to collect and therefore hard to establish extirpation conclusively.

Studies performed by Snodgrass et al. showed that although mortality rates did not necessarily significantly increase in the presence of coal combustion by-products, altered swimming performance, as well as increased toxin levels given less food availability, were both side effects of living in contaminated waters.

[4][11] Other activities, such as building dams, which dramatically changes the siltation levels of the chubsucker habitat, also negatively affect the abundance of the fish.

Increased siltation also hit these two stages the hardest as such activity changes the substrates on which the fish breeds, as well as where the small juveniles are trying to survive.

[9] This fish species is not currently listed as threatened or endangered, and the populations in the southern United States are thought to be secure.

There has been research done to determine its usefulness in improving the growth of largemouth bass, a popular sporting fish, though it does not seem to be able to sustain the predator by itself.

[9] Populations of E. sucetta in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, are listed as secure; Michigan's is ranked as apparently secure, Texas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, North Carolina, Indiana, and Wisconsin are listed as vulnerable, and the populations of Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, Virginia, and Ontario are imperiled.