Information on sculpin species is often changing and updating, but, around the globe, there are about 100 freshwater species of sculpin. We have 9 species in Idaho. They are the Mottled, Paiute, Slimy, Shorthead, Bear Lake, Shoshone, Wood River, Torrent, and Cedar sculpins.  

Basic Life History: 

Idaho sculpin have some general life history truths; 1) they don’t live super long, but maybe longer than you’d think. Many reports have them living around 5 years, but some have been documented to live up to 8 years, 2) they can start to reproduce at pretty young ages sometimes as early as their first year, but often during their second or third year, 3) spawning generally occurs from  late winter to early summer but varies on water temperature, 4) they commonly build spawning nests in crevices (caves), the females lay eggs (often upside down!) on rocks and then the males guard the nests until the eggs hatch.  

Once sculpin are swimming around they can usually be found in rocky riffle habitat in streams. The exception to this in Idaho is Bear Lake sculpin, which as the name suggests, are found only in a lake, not a stream. These are the only sculpin in the Western United States to only be found in deep water lake habitat. Sculpin eat a variety of food but predominantly focus on aquatic bugs like caddis flies, mayflies, and stoneflies. But, they have also been found to eat some types of fish eggs, earthworms, and fish that are smaller than the sculpin itself.