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CARP FACTS |
Description
The Carp is a native of Asia, but has been introduced widely to other countries including Australia. The Carp has small eyes, thick lips with two barbels (like little whiskers) at each corner of the mouth. The scales are large. Colour ranges from olive green to silvery grey above, with silvery yellow on the underside.
Size
length to 120cm and weight to 40kg. In Australia, usually seen at around 4-5kg.
Habitat
prefers large bodies of slow moving or still water with soft bottom sediment, also found in large turbid rivers
Food
Carp are omnivorous, straining food from the mud from the bottom and insects and plants from the surface. Food includes aquatic insects, crustaceans, mollusks, weeds, seeds, aquatic plants and algae. Juvenile Carp feed on algae, rotifers and crustaceans.
Breeding
Spawns in spring and summer and lays sticky eggs in shallow vegetation.
Range
In Australia, Carp are found in the Murray-Darling River system, and many freshwater streams in coastal New South Wales and Victoria. Also found in some coastal lakes.
Classification
| Class: | Actinopterygii | | Order: | Cypriniformes | | Family: | Cyprinidae | | Genus: | Cyprinus | | Species: | carpio | | Common Name: | Carp |
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