This page summarises how to catch Pygmy Suckerfish.

Pygmy Suckerfish

About Pygmy Suckerfish

  • Use: Alchemy: 1-2 Pygmy Oil. Drinking Pygmy Oil makes you a little smaller for 10 minutes. After drinking 6-10 oils in a row, you gain a buff described as "Pygmified!", which turns you into a Pygmy for 10 minutes. Pygmy Oil is also used to make several other alchemy potions and the Indestructible Alchemist's Stone.
  • Value:
  • Other Tomes: Battle.net, WoWDB, Wowhead, Wowpedia

Catching Pygmy Suckerfish

Where to Catch Pygmy Suckerfish
WaterAreasNo-Junk SkillCatch RateCommon Catch
% of CatchSample
Borean Man O' War SchoolCoastal: Borean Tundra165% [1]
1045
Deep Sea Monsterbelly SchoolCoastal: The Frozen Sea165% [1]
1045
Dragonfin Angelfish SchoolInland: Dragonblight165% [1]
1045
Fangtooth Herring SchoolInland and Brackish: Howling Fjord165% [1]
1045
Glacial Salmon SchoolInland: Grizzly Hills165% [1]
1045
Imperial Manta Ray SchoolCoastal: Borean Tundra, Dragonblight, Grizzly Hills, Howling Fjord165% [1]
1045
Moonglow Cuttlefish SchoolCoastal: The Frozen Sea165% [1]
1045
Musselback Sculpin SchoolInland: Borean Tundra165% [1]
1045
Nettlefish SchoolInland: Sholazar Basin165% [1]
1045
Open Water47510% [1]
326Bonescale Snapper
Open WaterInland and Unnamed Coastal: Grizzly Hills, Howling Fjord47510% [1]
236Bonescale Snapper
Open WaterInland: Crystalsong Forest50010% [1]
259
Open WaterInland and Unnamed Coastal: Sholazar Basin52510% [1]
211
Glassfin Minnow SchoolInland: Crystalsong Forest15% [1]
1045Glassfin Minnow

Images

Pygmified!

Learn More

Comments about Pygmy Suckerfish

Below are readers' comments about "Pygmy Suckerfish":

Pygmy Suckerfish Worthless

  1. thejmz, February 2009:

    It seems that since the 3.0.8 patch the catch rate of Pygmy Suckerfish was greatly increased.

    I don't have the raw data b/c i stopped using fishing buddy, but when i am farming Nettlefish at River's heart i catch 1 about every other catch.

    They once went for 90g per stack and now they're going for about 3g per stack.

    Has anyone else noticed the same?

    I am not making the most on Mussleback Sculpin and Nettlefish - do you guys think they will ever introduce new fish into WoTK?

    I am getting a little bored with the current selection.

  2. Triseult, February 2009:

    The catch rate of Suckerfish is ridiculous... The catches are rare where you DON'T get a Suckerfish. :/

  3. Talathan, February 2009:

    THAT explains it. I've been playing lower level alts for the past couple weeks and was wondering why the AH price had taken a nosedive. Heck, there are actually some ppl selling it on AH for less than the vendor price.

  1. Pipre, February 2009:

    yeah, Suckerfish have gone from a bit of a profit-maker to annoying vendor trash in one little patch. I send them off to my friend to make pygmy oil and vendor the rest.

    Suckerfish make me wish there was a special fishing bag...

  2. thejmz, February 2009:

    A FISHING BAG!!!

    What an awesome idea.

    Where do we go to suggest changes to Blizzard?

  3. Talathan, February 2009:

    The most effective method of making suggestions to Blizz is to bang your head on brick wall.

  4. Symbol, August 2009:

    Not sure if its just me but i got nearly 2 stack's of these from farming Musselback sculpin pool's
    for about an hour.

  5. ClemSnide, September 2009:

    Blizzard has taken several of my suggestions posted on-- of all places-- the Suggestions forum. However, I can assure you that the fishing bag has been suggested. And, like everything else in the Suggestions forujm, some morons quote your entire message and refute it point by point, holding forth on exactly why it will never happen, even when it's already in the public test realm patch. But, I digress.

    Pygmy Suckerfish reverse the usual fish-to-oil ratio. Firefin Snappers and Oily Blackmouths require 2 fish per oil; Pygmy Suckerfish will give you one or two flasks for each fish. (And are a great source of Omega-3 fatty acid, I should add.) So you can think of them as potentially 1.5 flasks of oil apiece.

    Now, Pygmy Oil is fun in and of itself. Have someone douse you with Baby Spice and, as Steve Martin said, Let's get Small. But it also goes into a few mid- to high-end Alchemist recipes. Thing is, unless you're supplying your guild with Guru's Elixir and Potions of Wild Magic, you don't need that many Suckerfish... and yeah, dang near everything in the oceans and rivers of Northrend have them, even crystallized water and supply crates. Plus, you get some Pygmy Oil as a reward from the Dalaran fishing dailies

    Me, I can't bear to throw things away, so my level 58 banker holds onto several bags' worth of fish and oil. If they add more recipes that use it, I'm there.

  6. Reply to this topic »

Pygmy Suckerfish

  1. CalixaFenris, November 2008:

    Accordingly to what I've read here (love El's Anglin!) Suckerfish have about a 10% drop rate. Despite about 500 casts in inland waters throughout Northrend I've gotten about 10 Suckerfish which seems awfully low. Maybe it's just my bad luck?

  2. teariki, November 2008:

    im getting about a 5.6% droprate as i fish open water in Howling Fjord (Above falls @ valgarde) in my search for Dark Herring ) about 800 casts thus far (in this spot).

  3. Lunaire, November 2008:

    Ive gotten most my suckerfishes in the lake near the D.E.H.T.A. (or however the name goes) camp in Borean Tundra :)

  1. scaresome, November 2008:

    Maybe a 10% droprate in the lake near Utgarde Keep in Howling Fjord.

    I'm following the cooking guide/advice and there seems to be a lot in my bags!

  2. Vanei, December 2008:

    Like Lunaire, it seems that more of my suckerfish come from the lake by DEHTA. Maybe it's just luck, but there might be something to it.

  3. Trotline, December 2008:

    In coastal open water in the Howling Fjord, I get very close to 10% Pygmies. Rather, they come as an extra 10 fish when I catch 100 'normal' fish.

  4. Reply to this topic »

Pygmy Suckerfish

  1. Talathan, March 2009:

    I've not been playing my main for maybe as much as 2 months. Shortly after I quit, the price of Pygmy Suckerfish on my server took a nosedive. Since the alt I had begun working on wasn't even lvl 30 yet, I had no idea what was going on in Northrend. I had heard that Blizz had significantly increased the catch rate of them in the patch that had just come out a few days before, and that made a lot of sense.

    Ok, now that alt is in Northrend. Today I spent over an hour fishing in Grizzly Hills where I know it well (over 3000 fish caught there). Back in January I was getting 1 Pygmy Suckerfish in every 10 successful casts. If anything, it actually seems to be closer to 1 in every 12-15 casts.

    My question is: Have things reverted to the way they used to be... or did they never change?

  2. Azaguth, March 2009:

    Non-pool fishing doesn't seem to have changed any for pygmies. Go fish some pools up. You'll get about a 65-80% pygmy drop rate (at least in my experience, it has been much greater than 50%).

  3. TheTacoMan, March 2009:

    I would say at LEAST 80% catch rate from pools. Pools are so much more worthwhile than open water fishing these days

  1. Azaguth, March 2009:

    Generally in the process of fishing up mats for a 20 stack of fish feasts, I end up with 5 stacks of pygmies (as well as about 5 crates, and probably 5 crystallized water, for a total of approximately 130 casts).

    So 100 pygmies from 130 casts = 76.92%.

    The margin of error on that, since it's an average based on 3 such runs (390-400 total casts, and no exact numbers), is probably + or - about 7.5%.

    I'll keep better numbers from now on on my weekly fish feast mat runs, and post an update so we can figure out a better percentage for pygmies in pools. I'd guess it's right at 80%, but I could be wrong.

    Maybe this will give me the excuse to go fish up the two dark herring I wanted to get for dual wielding. Gotta upgrade my rogue from the rockhide strongfish he's currently dual wielding, since they're getting weak for his level.

  2. Talathan, March 2009:

    Ah, ok. You're giving me a lot of incentive NOT to fish pools! What I'm fishing for mainly is Bonescale Snapper. In Grizzly Hills at least, they're caught in about 58% of the casts. I then use Glacial Salmon (20% catch rate) as my "buff food." For every Firecracker Salmon I eat, I eat at >least< 4 Grilled Bonescale (for the mana more often than not). When I go fishing, it's usually because I ran out of snapper. The Glacial Salmon is just icing on the cake. Pygmy Suckerfish used to be the financial incentive to stay until my bags were full. Now they're not.

  3. Azaguth, March 2009:

    Well, I still want to get a general idea overall of how often pygmies drop from northrend pools (since I suspect it may be the same drop rate for all the pool types).

    I'll go ahead and post some preliminary data, note this doesn't cover all pool types, it just covers Nettlefish, Musselback Sculpin, Glacial Salmon and Dragonfin Angelfish pools. Please note this is ONLY from pool fishing, and it is a very small data sample obtained only from fishing for personal buff food and fish feasts. The percentages from location to location may vary BECAUSE it's such a small sample data set.

    i'll start by location, then put it all together:

    Borean Tundra, Lake Kum'uya
    59 Musselback Sculpin
    7 Crystalized Water
    4 Reinforced Crate
    57 Pygmy Suckerfish
    Total Casts: 70
    81.43% Pygmies

    Dragonblight, Dragonspine Tributary
    20 Dragonfin Angelfish
    1 Reinforced Crate
    1 Crystallized Water
    13 Pygmy Suckerfish
    Total Casts: 22
    59.09% Pygmies

    Dragonblight, Drak'mar Lake
    7 Dragonfin Angelfish
    1 Reinforced Crate
    6 Pygmy Suckerfish
    Total Casts: 8
    75% Pygmies

    Grizzly Hills, (no zone subset name)
    29 Glacial Salmon
    3 Reinforced Crate
    20 Pygmy Suckerfish
    Total Casts: 32
    62.5% Pygmies

    Grizzly Hills, Zeb'halak
    16 Glacial Salmon
    1 Crystallized Water
    11 Pygmy Suckerfish
    Total Casts: 17
    64.71% Pygmies

    Grizzly Hills, Zim"bo's Hideout
    3 Glacial Salmon
    1 Crystallized Water
    2 Pygmy Suckerfish
    Total Casts: 4
    50% Pygmies

    Sholozar Basin, Bittertide Lake
    22 Nettlefish
    2 Crystallized Water
    20 Pygmy Suckerfish
    Total Casts: 24
    83.33% Pygmies

    Sholozar Basin, Frenzyheart River
    5 Nettlefish
    3 Pygmy Suckerfish
    Total Casts: 5
    60% Pygmies

    Sholozar Basin, River's Heart
    26 Nettlefish
    1 Reinforced Crate
    1 Crystallized Water
    21 Pygmy Suckerfish
    Total Casts: 28
    75% Pygmies

    Sholozar Basin, (no zone subset name)
    4 Nettlefish
    4 Pygmy Suckerfish
    Total Casts: 4
    100% Pygmies

    Sholozar Basin, Wildgrowth Mangal
    14 Nettlefish
    2 Crystallized Water
    11 Pygmy Suckerfish
    Total Casts: 16
    68.75% Pygmies

    Sholozar Basin, Wintergrasp River
    3 Nettlefish
    1 Crystallized Water
    4 Pygmy Suckerfish
    Total Casts: 4
    100% Pygmies

    Overall totals:
    208 pool-specific fish (74 Nettlefish, 48 Glacial Salmon, 27 Dragonfin Angelfish, 59 Musselback Sculpin)
    16 Crystallized Water
    10 Reinforced Crate
    172 Pygmy Suckerfish
    Total Pool Casts: 234
    73.5% of casts yielded Pygmy Suckerfish

    Please keep in mind this is a relatively small data sample (<250 total casts), so there is a possibly large margin of error (probably plus or minus 7.5%, I'd wager). So the overall chance of catching pygmies from a pool is probably about 66-81%.

    Anyone else wanna hammer this down further by adding more cast data?

    I'll edit this post when I have over 1k casts total, that should bring the margin of error to about 5% either way.

  4. Reply to this topic »

Pygmy Suckerfish droprate nerf?

  1. Utopia, May 2009:

    It appears that Blizz have seriously nerfed the droprate since yesterday (presumably in the maintenance) I've only fished a small sample so far, and only Glassfin Minnow, but it now seems to be about 9%, as opposed to about 90-95% droprate I was seeing as last as last night.
    Phew....no more having to dump them for bag space after filling the guildbank and flooding the AH with them :D

  2. el, May 2009:

    Glassfin Minnow School always had a low catch rate for Pygmy Suckerfish.

  3. Utopia, May 2009:

    Ahh...hadn't realised that...dammit I hoped I was onto something :(

  4. Rayak, May 2009:

    I've been making Guru's Elixirs with my alchemists like crazy! With the number I get from the actual fishing for the quests and the number of Pygmy Oils I get with the fishing quest rewards, I'm just overrun with them.

    The Guru Elixir is a nice little elixir too, +20 bonus to all stats. Sells for about 10-12g per stack on the AH, plus I send stacks of them to all my alts who are leveling!

  5. Reply to this topic »

And More...

Comments are posted on the forums. To comment you can reply to one of the topics above, or start a new topic: Use the page's name (Pygmy Suckerfish) as the topic title, or tag the topic with that name. To edit a comment, view the original forum thread (while logged in), and make changes there. New comments or changes take a few minutes to appear here.