---
title: Live Sharksucker (Remora) (Echeneis naucrates)
scientific_name: Echeneis naucrates
common_name: Live Sharksucker (Remora)
taxon: Remoras
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-08-25T17:46:34.593Z
updated: 2026-08-17T14:22:47.426Z
tags: Live Sharksucker (Remora), Echeneis naucrates, Remoras, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/remoras/live-sharksucker-remora
---

# Live Sharksucker (Remora) (*Echeneis naucrates*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Remoras (*Echeneidae*)
- **Size:** 1 m
- **Depth:** 1-60 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Open water, riding sharks, rays, turtles and boats
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- oval ridged disc on top of the head, which is a modified dorsal fin
- dark body with a black stripe edged in white from snout to tail
- lower jaw projecting beyond the upper
- usually attached to something larger, or swimming just off it
- up to 1 m

The disc on its head is a fin. It is the first dorsal fin, rebuilt: the spines have flattened and split into a series of movable slats set in an oval pad. The fish grips by pressing the pad against a surface and tilting the slats backward, which drops the pressure underneath, and the harder the host pulls away the tighter the hold becomes. To let go, the remora swims forward.

It rides sharks, rays, turtles, large fish and boats. On a shark or a manta it is not purely a passenger: it takes parasitic copepods off the skin and picks up scraps from the host's meals. It also feeds perfectly well on its own, which is why you meet them swimming free.

They will try a diver too. A remora that has decided your tank or your leg is a host will stay with you for the rest of the dive, and the grip is strong enough to feel and nowhere near strong enough to matter.

At a meter long this is the largest of the family: dark, with a black stripe edged in white running from snout to tail, and unmistakably a fish with a shoe sole glued to its head.

## Also known as

- **English:** live sharksucker, Slender Sucker Fish, sharksucker
- **Arabic:** لشك ماص للقرش
- **Hebrew:** דבק הכרישים, דבק נצמד
- **French:** naucrate, Grand rémora, Poisson pilote
- **Italian:** Remora degli squali
- **German:** Gestreifter Schiffshalter, Schiffshalter
- **Spanish:** rémora rayada, Rémora Tiburonera, Pegador
- **Greek:** Κολαούζος, Κολλησόψαρο
- **Turkish:** klavuz baligi, vantuz baligi
- **Portuguese:** Pegador-listado, Rêmora-oceânica
- **Dutch:** Zuigvis
- **Swedish:** Hajsugfisk
- **Polish:** Podnawka
- **Czech:** štítovec lodivod
- **Japanese:** コバンザメ, Kobanzame
- **Chinese:** 長印仔魚, 長印魚, 長鮣魚
- **Ukrainian:** Смугаста риба-причепа, Причепа смугаста
- **Russian:** Полосатая рыба-прилипало, Обыкновенный прилипало
- **AF:** Haaisuier, Platkop
- **CA:** Rèmora de banda negra
- **DA:** Stribet sugefisk
- **FI:** isoremora
- **MLT:** Remora tal-faxx iswed, Pixxi tmun, Remora tal-faxx
- **TAH:** ti'aiti'auri
- **TH:** ปลาเหาฉลาม

## Scientific synonyms

- *Echeneis chiromacer* Duméril, 1858
- *Echeneis fasciata* Gronow, 1854
- *Echeneis fusca* Gronow, 1854
- *Echeneis guaican* Poey, 1860
- *Echeneis lunata* Bancroft, 1831
- *Echeneis metallica* Poey, 1860
- *Echeneis naucratus* Linnaeus, 1758
- *Echeneis neucrates* Linnaeus, 1758
- *Echeneis scaphecrates* Duméril, 1858
- *Echeneis vittata* Rüppell, 1838
- *Echensis naucrates* Linnaeus, 1758
- *Echneis naucrates* Linnaeus, 1758
- *Leptecheneis flaviventris* Seale, 1906
- *Leptecheneis naucrates* (Linnaeus, 1758)

## Range

Black Sea, Comoros, Djibouti, Federal Republic of Somalia, Greece, Gulf of Mexico, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Madagascar, Mediterranean Sea - Eastern Basin, Mozambique, New Zealand, North Atlantic Ocean, Red Sea, Republic of Mauritius, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/remoras/live-sharksucker-remora)*
*Updated: August 17, 2026*