♦ Scientific name: Cyprinus carpio ♦ Common name: Common carp ♦Taxonomic position: Cyprinidae ♦Description and ecological character

The common carps are a representative of cosmopolitan species, inhabiting most of global freshwater environments where water temperature remains below around 30℃. In spite of their global distribution, the carps prefer turbid waters to absolute clean waters. Two strains of the common carps distributed in Korea are indigenous to Korea there is also foreign strain, called Israeli carp.

  Although the carps inhabit a wide range of water environments, the preferred water temperatures for optimal growth are 25~26℃. The common carp are incredibly hardy and flexible in their preferences for living conditions.

Omnivorous feeders, carp have predominantly vegetarian diets but will feed on aquatic insects, snails, crustaceans, annelids, and mollusks. Aquatic plants and filamentous algae are the most popular food groups of the common carp. Their feeding habits are noteworthy, because they grub sediments from the bottom with their sucker-like mouths, uprooting and destroying vegetation and muddying the water.

Spawning occurs from mid-April through June when the adhesive eggs are scattered in the shallow water over vegetation. Females can spawn more than 500,000 eggs over a period of several days, leaving several thousand at each spawning site.

   The eggs go unattended, hatching in 3 to 5 days. The fry are born with an adhesive organ which they use immediately to adhere to bottom vegetation; after the first day, they must go to the surface and gulp air to survive.

◆ Aquaculture technique

Culture: About 2 years is needed to complete culture. Stocking density for yearling production is about 1-2 ind/m².

The yearling will be cultured at cage or pond on next year to table fish. Feeding rate is 1-2% in may to more than 20% in September. It should be changed according to water temperature and the growth of fishes. 2-3 tons of fishes can be produced in a cage with W5×L5×D1.5 m. In the pond culture the production will be decreased to 300g/m².

◆ Present Status of Inland Fisheries and Aquaculture in Korea.

  Most popular culturing method for carp in Korea was cage in large water bodies until 1998. But after Government have decided to prevent water pollution from feeds supplied to carp, the license was not extended nor permitted. The carp culture in Korea is now greatly reduced for this reason and some farmers culture the carp only in their earthen pond. The production of carp is less than 1000 tones in 2005 which attains about 10% of total freshwater production.

Spawning behavior of common carp	Working on the common carp farm