[3] The pharyngeal teeth are distinctly long, straight, and knife-shaped, not seen in similar species in California; the grinding surface of the blackfish, used to process its food, is relatively narrow.

[5] The dark grey color of the adults can sometimes take on an olive hue, they have an elongated and narrow peduncle connecting the body to the caudal fin.

[6] It is one of the largest native minnow species in California, ranking third behind the Hardhead (Mylopharodon conocephalus) and the Sacramento Pikeminnow (Ptychocheilus grandis).

[7] Blackfish are primarily denizens of the warm and cloudy waters found on the floor of the Central Valley, such as sloughs and oxbow lakes connected to the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers.

[6] The Sacramento blackfish comprises a commercial fishery in Clear Lake,[9] which mostly serves the Chinese-American food and dining industry in California.

Unlike most North American cyprinids, Sacramento blackfish filter feed on zooplankton, planktonic algae, and floating detritus, including rotifers, copepods, cladocerans, diatoms, and the like.

Instead, the gill rakers act as directional structures to send the water stream they gulp up to the roof of their mouth in order to trap food material in the mucus.

Juvenile Blackfish actually use suction to pull larger zooplankton out of the water column for consumption individually rather than opening their mouths to filter-feed.

[13] Because of the anatomical and physiological adaptation of catching food particles in the mucus of the roof of the mouth, the Sacramento blackfish has the ability to continue suspension feeding even in conditions of low oxygen, something that would be far less efficient if following the typical model of filtering.

The blackfishes' breeding season occurs from the spring through early summer, where males will fertilize female eggs in shallow waters.

Due to physical stresses from reproduction, many blackfish find spawning difficult and die after two seasons, but some can reproduce up to four times.

[5] Male Sacramento blackfish can grow breeding tubercles, or bumps on the surface of the skin, and during mating season may also appear darker in color.

A study by Joseph J. Cech Jr., a professor at the University of California, Davis, found that the blackfish was able to thrive in hypoxic environments.

[14] This means that they have developed adaptations that allow them to endure conditions that other species may not be able to survive under, including in water with low oxygen levels.

[16] Because Blackfish are filter feeders, they are primarily removing larger algal particles and zooplankton species from the water column.