- Northern hogsucker like clear waters with swift currents and can be found on stream bottoms and in riffles.
- The species pushes aside rocks and pebbles with its snout and vacuums up insects, mollusks, crustaceans, and vegetation from the river bed.
- Other fish swim downstream of hogsuckers to feed on the food hogsuckers stir up.
- Northern hogsuckers are intolerant of man-made disturbances and pollution and have suffered from the impacts of dams, channelization, and sedimentation.
