While meristics can assist with identification, the shortnose suckers habit for variation makes ranges wide and accuracy difficult.

Brand new techniques analyzing vertebral structures & genetic markers have been developed to more accurately identify these fish, amidst their challenges, when morphology & meristics cannot.

The Lost River population of shortnose suckers have more subterminally located mouths and wider lips, possibly as a result of hybridization.

[5] Shortnose suckers are susceptible to avian predation and are often victims and intermediate hosts for trematodes aiming to parasitize the birds that attack unfortunate fish.

[5] The preferable habitat for the fish is a large, turbid, shallow, somewhat alkaline, clear, well-oxygenated lake that is cool, but not cold, in the summer season.

[10] As California’s drought conditions have continued, driven by the rising climate, the habitat range of Shortnose Suckers has shrunk significantly.

Many of the lakes they could once inhabit have become warm, shallow, and anoxic as a result of toxic algal blooms produced by agricultural runoff.

To overcome this challenge, C. brevirostris in the Upper Klamath tend to aggregate near river inflow points in the lake where water is clearer and conditions are more favorable.

[5] Juvenile shortnose suckers hide during the day, to avoid predation, and migrate toward their adult, lake habitat, downstream in the nighttime.

The Karuk, Klamath, and Modoc tribes have all used shortnose suckers and related fish as food sources of great cultural significance.

The efforts to remove the dams on the Klamath river were led largely by members of these tribes, attempting to restore these fish to ecological stability while strengthening their own communities as well.