Common carp

Common carp
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 2.3)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Cypriniformes
Family:	Cyprinidae
Genus:	Cyprinus
Species:	C. carpio
Binomial name
Cyprinus carpio (Linnaeus, 1758)

The Common carp or European carp (Cyprinus carpio) is a widespread freshwater fish related to the common goldfish (Carassius auratus), with which it is capable of interbreeding.^[1][2] It gives its name to the carp family Cyprinidae. Common carp are native to Asia and Eastern Europe.^[3] It has been introduced into environments worldwide, and is often considered an invasive species.

Koi (錦鯉 (nishikigoi) in Japanese, 鯉魚 (pinyin: lĭ yú) in Chinese) is a domesticated ornamental variety that originated in the Niigata region of Japan in the 1820s. ^[4]

Variants include the mirror carp, with large mirror-like scales (linear mirror - scaleless except for a row of large scales that run along the lateral line; originating in Germany), the leather carp (virtually unscaled except near dorsal fin), and the fully scaled carp.

Origins

The common carp originally originated from Western Asia and spread throughout China, Siberia and the Danube basin. Domestication of carp as food fish was spread throughout Europe by monks between the 13th and 16th centuries. The wild forms of carp had reached the delta of the Rhine in the twelfth century already, probably also with some human help.^[5] Carp has now been introduced to all continents and some 59 countries. In Western Europe, the carp is cultured more commonly as a sport fish although there is a small market as food fish.^[6][7]

Physiology

Common carp can grow to a maximum length of 5 feet (1.5 m)^[8], a maximum weight of over 80 lb (37.3 kg), and an oldest recorded age of at least 65 years.^[9] The largest recorded carp, caught by an angler in 2007 at Rainbow lake near Bordeaux, France, weighed 88.6 pounds (40.1 kilograms).^[10] The wild, non-domesticated forms tend to be much less stocky at around 20% - 33% the maximum size.

Habitat

Although they are very tolerant of most conditions, common carp prefer large bodies of slow or standing water and soft, vegetative sediments. A schooling fish, they prefer to be in groups of 5 or more. They natively live in a temperate climate in fresh or brackish water with a 7.0 - 9.0 pH, and an a temperature range of 35.0 - 85.0 °F (1.6 - 30.0 °C). Common Carp will readily survive winter in a frozen over pond, as long as there remains some free water. Carp can withstand summer water temperatures in the low 90 degrees Fahrenheit for short periods. Ideal temperature is 68 to 75°F (20 to 24 °C).

Diet

Common carp are omnivorous. The common carp can eat a vegetarian diet of water plants, but prefers to scavenge the bottom for insects, crustaceans (including zooplankton), benthic worms, or the occasional corn snack from tourists.

Reproduction

An egg-layer, a typical adult fish can lay 300,000 eggs in a single spawning.^[11] Although carp typically spawn in the Spring, in response to rising water temperatures and rain fall, carp can spawn multiple times in a season. In commercial operations spawning is often stimulated by injection. Carp lay eggs by the hundreds of thousands, yet their population remains the same, so the eggs and young must perish in similar vast numbers. Eggs and fry often fall victim to bacteria, fungi, and the vast array of tiny predators in the pond environment. Those fortunate enough to survive to juvenile are preyed upon by other fish such as the northern pike and largemouth bass.

Introduction into other habitats

Carp gather near a dock in Lake Powell

Carp in Maribyrnong River, Australia

Carp in the duck pond in Herbert Park, Dublin, Ireland

Koi in Chinese Garden Zürich, Switzerland

Common carp have been introduced, sometimes illegally, into many countries. Due to their fecundity and their feeding habit of grubbing through bottom sediments for food they are notorious for altering their environment. In feeding, they may destroy, uproot and disturb submerged vegetation causing serious damage to native duck and fish populations.^[12]

Efforts to non-chemically eradicate a small colony from Tasmania's Lake Crescent have been successful, however the long-term, expensive and intensive undertaking is an example of the both the possibility and difficulty of safely removing the species once it is established.^[13] It has been proposed, but is regarded as environmentally questionable, to control common carp by deliberate exposure to the common carp specific Koi Herpes Virus with its high mortality rate.

In Australia there is enormous anecdotal and mounting scientific evidence that introduced carp are the cause of permanent turbidity and loss of submergent vegetation in the Murray-Darling river system, with severe consequences for river ecosystems, water quality and native fish species.^[14] In Victoria, Australia, Common carp has been declared as noxious fish species therefore there is no restriction on the quantity that a fisher can take.^[15] In South Australia, it is an offence for this species to be released back to the wild.^[16] An Australian company churns common carp into plant fertilizer.^[17]

Common carp were brought to the United States in 1831.^[18] In the late 1800s they were distributed widely throughout the country by the government as a foodfish. However, common carp are no longer prized as a foodfish in the United States. As in Australia, their introduction has been shown to have negative environmental consequences^[19] and they are usually considered to be invasive species. Millions of dollars are spent annually by natural resource agencies to control common carp populations in the United States.^[20]

Common carp are believed to have been introduced into the Canadian province of British Columbia from Washington State. They were first noted in the Okanagan Valley in 1912 as was their rapid growth in population. Carp are currently distributed in the lower Columbia (Arrow Lakes), lower Kootenay, Kettle (Christina Lake), and throughout the Okanagan system.^[21]

As food and sport

Cyprinus carpio is the number one fish of aquaculture. The annual tonnage of common carp, not to mention the other cyprinids, produced in China alone exceeds the weight of all other fish, such as trout and salmon, produced by aquaculture world wide.

Common carp are extremely popular with anglers in many parts of Europe, and their popularity as quarry is slowly increasing among anglers in the United States (though destroyed as pests in many areas), and southern Canada. Carp are also popular with spear, bow, and fly fishermen.

Carp is also eaten in many parts of the world both when caught from the wild and raised in aquaculture. In Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia and Poland, carp is a traditional part of a Christmas Eve dinner.

Carp are mixed with other common fish to make gefilte fish, popular in Jewish cuisine.

The Romans farmed carp and this pond culture continued through the monasteries of Europe and to this day. In China and soon after in Japan carp farming took place as early as the Yayoi Period (ca. 300 B.C - 300 A.D.).^[22]

See also

• List of freshwater aquarium fish species
• Rough fish
• Benson a notable common carp

References

1. ^ Taylor, J., R. Mahon. 1977. Hybridization of Cyprinus carpio and Carassius auratus, the first two exotic species in the lower Laurentian Great Lakes. Environmental Biology Of Fishes 1(2):205-208.
2. ^ Photo of goldfish x common carp hybrid in Melton Hill Reservoir from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency
3. ^ Panek, F.M. 1987. Biology and ecology of carp, Pages 1-16 In Cooper, E.L. (editor) Carp in North America. American Fisheries Society, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
4. ^ Ray Jordan Koi History
5. ^ Aanvullend Archeologisch Onderzoek op terrein 9 te Houten-Loerik, gemeente Houten (U.)
6. ^ http://www.carp-uk.net/carpfacts.htm
7. ^ http://www.fatanglingtours.com/carpinfo.htm
8. ^ http://www.fishing-for-carp.co.uk/types-species-of-carp.php
9. ^ http://www.ghostcarplake.com/fish.htm
10. ^ Angler catches world's biggest carp - which weighs almost as much as Kylie | Mail Online
11. ^ http://www.carp-fishing.org/
12. ^ http://www.lakeconservation.com/
13. ^ http://www.scribd.com/doc/15234598/fisheries-of-america
14. ^ http://www.echuca.ws/Echuca-Fishing/European-Carp.html
15. ^ Victorian Recreational Fishing Guide 2006-2007
16. ^ fishsa.com
17. ^ carp as fertilizer
18. ^ http://www.wildlifedepartment.com/asiancarp.htm
19. ^ USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Program
20. ^ http://www.echuca.ws/Echuca-Fishing/European-Carp.html
21. ^ Cyprinus carpio (Linnaeus) on Living Landscapes, from the Royal British Columbia Museum
22. ^ Daily Yomiuri newspaper, Sept. 19, 2008

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Cyprinus carpio

• World Conservation Monitoring Centre (1996). Cyprinus carpio. 2006. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. www.iucnredlist.org. Retrieved on 12 May 2006.
• Cyprinus carpio (TSN 163344). Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved on 4 October 2004.
• "Cyprinus carpio". FishBase. Ed. Ranier Froese and Daniel Pauly. September 2004 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2004.
• Cyprinus carpio Arkive
• Common Carp & Mirror Carp (Cyprinus Carpio)

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