Common Carp, Cyprinus carpio
Common Carp, Cyprinus carpio. Fish caught from a golf course lake in Columbia, Missouri, June 2019. Length: 7.5 cm (3.0 inches). Catch, photograph and identification courtesy of Luke Ovgard, Klamath Falls, Oregon.
Common Carp, Cyprinus carpio. Fish collected from a greater San Diego Golf Course, San Diego, California, February 2010. Length: 22 cm (8.7 inches). Identification courtesy of H.J. Walker, Jr., Scripps Institute of Oceanography, La Jolla, California.
Common Carp, Cyprinus carpio. Fish caught in the Cooper River, South Carolina, March 2011. Length: 94 cm (3 feet 1 inch). Catch, photograph and identification courtesy of Eli (obsessiveangling.wordpress.com).
Common Carp, Cyprinus carpio. Fish caught in the Cooper River, South Carolina, March 2011. Length: 96 cm (3 feet 2 inches). Catch, photograph, and identification courtesy of Josh Leisen (joshadventures.com), Gaylord, Michigan.
The Common Carp, Cyprinus carpio (more formally Cyprinus carpio var. communis), is a member of the Carp and Minnow or Cyprinidae Family, and is known in Mexico as carpa común. Globally, there are twenty-four species in the genus Cyprinus, of which two are found in all freshwater systems of Mexico. The Common Carp originated in Asia and was introduced for cultivation in Mexico in 1877 with fish being imported from Europe. It is currently the world’s most widely distributed fish and is found on all continents except Antarctica.
The Common Carp has an elongated and somewhat compressed body that is widest near the dorsal fin origin. They are brownish-green on their backs and upper sides and transition to golden-yellow ventrally. Their fins are dusky with their caudal fin being darker than the others and their ventral fins having red tinges. Their head is fairly small with big eyes and an overhanging front jaw. Their mouth has thick lips, extends to the margin of their eyes, and has pharyngeal teeth with flattened crowns; it opens at the front in younger fish and becomes sub-terminal with age. They have 2 pairs of barbels with the shorter pair located on the upper lip. Their anal fin has 6 or 7 rays; their caudal fin is forked; and, their dorsal fin has a concave anterior outline and a long base with 17 to 22 branched rays. Their body is heavily scaled.
The Common Carp is found in backwater areas of streams, rivers, and water reservoirs that normally have dense aquatic vegetation. Individuals that measure 30 cm (12 inches) to 64 cm (25 inches) in length and weigh between 3.6 kg (8 lbs 0 oz) and 4.5 kg (10 lbs 0 oz) are common. The maximum recorded length for the Common Carp is 1.22 m (4 feet 0 inches). As of January 1, 2023, the International Game Fish Association world record stood at 1.02 m (3 feet 4 inches), with the fish caught in Lake Biwa, Japan in May 2017 and 34.35 kg (75 lbs 11 oz) with the fish caught in a lake in France in May 1987. There is a report of fish caught in France in 2013 that weighed 100 lbs 8 oz. They are bottom dwellers and prefer water temperatures between 23oC (73oF) and 30oC (86oF) but can survive in a variety of waters: cold to 35oC (95oF), varying pH, some salinity, turbid with large amounts of particulate matter, and both high and low oxygen concentrations. They have a highly developed sense of hearing, smell, and taste and are omnivorous, consuming birds, water insects, larvae of insects, mollusks, worms, snakes, and zooplankton, as well as leaves, seeds, and stalks of aquatic and terrestrial plants. They significantly increase the turbidity of the water body in which they reside by their bottom feeding. Reproduction involves external fertilization with each female laying between 36,000 and 2,200,000 eggs multiple times per year. Released eggs are quickly fertilized by males, become sticky, and adhere themselves to vegetation. After hatching, the fish become free swimming and start to consume food within 6 days of spawning. They are non-migratory and have lifespans of up to forty-seven years in captivity but seldom live past ten years in the wild.
The Common Carp was introduced in Mexico in 1889. They are currently broadly distributed in Mexico and found in lagoons, ponds and lakes in rural areas in the States of Aguascalientes, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Guanajuato, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Mexico, Michoacán, Oaxaca, Puebla, Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, Sonora, and Tlaxcala. They are considered to be an important role in the aquaculture development in Mexico providing a quality source and employment with annual catch levels on the order of 50,000 tons per year.
The Common Carp has a long and interesting history. They were considered a luxury food in the middle and late Roman period and were consumed during fasting in the middle Ages. The Romans grew them in ponds. Cyprinids have been reared in China for more than 2,000 years. At present there are 30 to 35 strains of domesticated Common Carps in Europe. Today they are one of the major farmed fish in the world with Mexico being one of the main producers. Global production is now at a level of 33,000,000 tons per year representing 14% of the total global freshwater aquaculture production, making them second to Tilapia. The quantities farmed in Mexico are unreported but significant. Various aspects of their physiology, nutrition, genetics, and diseases are intensely studied. Also conditions for their breeding and rearing in different climates have been developed. Globally they are sold at an average of 50 cents per lb, mostly domestically with very few exports due to low prices. They are normally sold either live or freshly dressed with as many as 15 value added commercial products offered from a single carp. They are considered an invasive species that is hard to eradicate (a process that started shortly after their introduction over 150 years ago) and can quickly become a pest threatening local biodiversity. The ornamental form of the Common Carp originating from Japan is known as Koi and is symbolic of courage and energy. For anglers the Common Carp runs the gambit from “hated trash fish” (North America) to “fabulous new sports fish and excellent table fare” (Europe). Remember if you catch one, take it home, and prepare it for a feast (keeping in mind that the flavor of the meat is directly related to the quality of the water it is taken from). If you don’t like its taste, simply use as garden fertilizer or cat food. There will be plenty more where this one came from!
From a conservation perspective the Common Carp is currently considered to be of Least Concern with stable widely distributed populations.