The Lumpsucker is one of the oddest looking fish in Irish waters. It is green, round and bumpy, and gets its name from the sucker on its underside. This sucker is actually a pair of modified pelvic fins, and is used by the fish to attach itself to rocks and floating objects.

As the Lumpsucker is a lazy animal, it spends large parts of its day sucked onto a rock or other object, waiting until it becomes hungry enough to go and look for its next meal. But the sucker also serves two very important purposes: a) to anchor the fish, which is a very poor swimmer, to a rock during stormy seas and b) to allow the male Lumpsucker to remain beside his eggs after mating, so he can guard and ventilate them until they hatch.

During the breeding season the male is identifiable from the female as his belly turns bright red.

For many years, the large, fleshy eggs of the Lumpsucker have been collected from rocks at low tide, salted and dyed, and sold as “mock caviar”.