Asian carp scientific name

The silver carp Hypophthalmichthys molitrix is a species of freshwater cyprinid fish , a variety of Asian carp native to China and eastern Siberia. By weight more silver carp are produced worldwide in aquaculture than any other species of fish except for the grass carp. Silver carp are usually farmed in polyculture with other Asian carp , or sometimes with catla or other fish species. The species has also been introduced , or spread by connected waterways, to at least 88 countries around the world. The reason for importation was generally for use in aquaculture, but enhancement of wild fisheries and water quality control have also been intended on occasion. The gill rakers are fused into a sponge-like filter, and an epibranchial organ secretes mucus which assists in trapping small particles.

Common Carp, Cyprinus carpio , while originally from Asia, arrived in North America much earlier and is not one of those species referred to as Asian carps. Click here for more information. All are members of the cyprinid family, which includes carps and several varieties of minnows. Of the Bighead Carp, only three specimens have been collected, all in western Lake Erie, between and , and are believed to have been intentionally released. Of the Grass Carp specimens, there have been approximately 23 single captures since in the waters or tributaries of Lake Huron, Lake Ontario, and Lake Erie the most recent in Lake Erie in It is likely that the fish caught were escapees from areas where populations were being used for aquatic plant control, or live releases. Recently, juvenile Grass Carp caught in the Sandusky River in Ohio, which empties into Lake Erie, were found to have been produced by natural reproduction.

Several species of heavy-bodied cyprinid fishes are collectively known in the United States as Asian carp. Cyprinids from the Indian subcontinent—for example, catla Catla catla and mrigal Cirrhinus cirrhosus —are not included in this classification and are known collectively as "Indian carp". All the above, except largescale silver carp, have been cultivated in aquaculture in China for over 1, years. Largescale silver carp, a more southern species, is native to Vietnam and is cultivated there.

Asian carp , any of several species of fish belonging to the carp family Cyprinidae that are native to eastern Asia, particularly China and Russia, and naturalized in some American waterways. The grass carp Ctenopharyngodon idella , bighead carp Hypophthalmichthys nobilis , black carp Mylopharyngodon piceus , and silver carp Hypophthalmichthys molitrix , following their accidental introduction into waterways in the United States , are collectively referred to as Asian carp. Floods and bait release by sport fishers allowed members of these species, which had proved invasive in other parts of the world, to colonize the Mississippi River system.