Lumpsucker

Lumpsucker, any fish of the genus Cyclopterus, of the Acanthopterygian Family Discoboli (in which the ventral fins are modified to form a sucking disk). There are three species from the Arctic and north temperate zones. The body is short and thick, the head and the skin covered with tubercles. C. lumpus, the Common Lumpsucker, is abundant on the northern shores of Britain. Scottish fishermen call the male the Cock, and the female the Hen Paddle, from the fancied resemblance of the dorsal ridge to the comb of a cock. The coloration is brilliant, and the flesh, which differs in quality at different seasons, is eaten.