Reproduction
Reproduction of carp occurs in different ways depending on the distribution and habitat. Usually the fish leave the pits after the onset of the spring flood and go to the river floodplain. Carp wakes up when the water temperature reaches 10 degrees Celsius. This usually happens a month before spawning. Individuals swim to spawning grounds located at a depth of 1.5 to 2 meters. Carp spawning grounds are always found among dense underwater vegetation.
Spawning begins at temperatures not lower than 18, but not higher than 29 degrees Celsius. Sometimes carp prefer to breed near coastal areas, the depth of which does not exceed half a meter. The spawning area should be turfed and overgrown. Among underwater plants, carp prefer those with hard leaves. But these are very rare, so females lay eggs on filamentous algae.
There are not enough spawning grounds for carp, so each of them is used several times. Fish spawn in groups. Each female is accompanied by two to five males. But more often there are three of them.
Carp spawning is very vigorous. At this time, frequent splashes and a lot of noise can be observed near reservoirs. Spawning begins at night, when the sun sets. It continues all night until morning comes and the sun begins to burn - 10-12 hours.
Carps reach sexual maturity from 3 to 5 years. Whether a fish is sexually mature or not depends on the size of the fish. Males become adults when their body length is 29-36 centimeters. Females are slightly larger: they reach sexual maturity when they reach a body length of 34-35 centimeters. The eggs mature in 3-4 days after fertilization.
Description
There are several types of carp. They differ in the presence or absence of scales and their color. The following species are found in rivers and lakes:
- Gold;
- Mirror (royal);
- Naked.
Let's look at each type of carp separately.
Golden carp
Golden carp
The most common is the golden carp. This is a large fish with large and smooth scales, colored brown or yellow-green. But depending on the place where the carp lives, the color of the scales may change. The sides of the fish are golden in color, but the back is dark.
The fish has a large head, and a retractable, semi-lower mouth with well-developed lips. The upper lip has one pair of very developed but short whiskers. The anal fin is short, and the dorsal fin is quite long and has a small notch. These two fins each have a “file”, which is a jagged and spiny ray.
Mirror (king) carp
Mirror carp
Even an inexperienced fisherman will not confuse a mirror carp with an ordinary one. The body of the fish is almost completely naked, without scales. Individual scales are found on the center line of the fish's body. They are very large. Sometimes the scales are scattered throughout the body in “islands”.
The lateral line of a carp has a number of holes. The holes contain nerve cells. With their help, fish can receive information about the world around them. King carp are rare.
naked carp
The name of this type of carp speaks for itself. He has no scales at all. The color of the body is green, giving off a swamp tint. Otherwise, the fish resembles its golden counterpart, except that naked carp are bred artificially.
Carps of all types have approximately the same lifespan, size and weight. Young one-year-old carp are 20 centimeters long and weigh about 1 kilogram. There were such rare specimens of adult individuals, the length of which was 1-1.2 meters, and the weight was more than 20 kilograms. Young carp have a small hump, while adults have a cylindrical body.
Why didn’t sturgeon and trout go?
As Lyudmila Yesimchik , the chief fish farmer of the enterprise, said, several years ago they tried to grow sturgeon and trout here, but the process did not take off.
“The cultivation of these valuable fish species has its own technological features,” she noted. — Trout and sturgeon need to be constantly supplied with cold artesian water, but our well did not allow this. In addition, this fish needs special feed, which is produced only abroad, which means they had to be purchased in foreign currency. Due to the high protein content, imported feed also spoiled quickly. Therefore, we decided not to deal with sturgeon and trout and sent the fish for processing in June-July.”
Photos: Anna Leshchenko Sergey Makarenko, director of OJSC Fish Processing Plant Lyuban
Origin
There is a firmly rooted theory-myth that a fish such as carp is not the original, nature-created inhabitant of low-current and stagnant freshwater bodies of water. Allegedly, it owes its appearance to the painstaking selection work associated with the domestication of wild river carp, whose ancestral home is the south of China and the Caspian Sea. This is fundamentally wrong. Wild carp have always had river and lake varieties, which differed in body shape. The fish, which constantly lives in oxygen-rich rapids, had a low torpedo-shaped body and stretched out in length. The same carps, whose habitat was in calm and food-rich water bodies with a minimum of large predators, quickly gained weight, became fat and grew upward.
It was the lake variety, which historically was accustomed to living in conditions of oxygen deficiency, without any selection changes, that was introduced by humans into many water bodies in Europe, Asia, and North America. The issue of biological species improvements on an industry scale arose only in the last 150-200 years and led to the emergence of dozens of original breeds and hybrids.
It is important to know that the term “carp” has no scientific basis and was formed in the 19th century with the light hand of the famous author of books on fishing and hunting, Sergei Aksakov. The Ufa writer often visited his small homeland, where he took part in multi-day outings into nature. During one of his trips to the largest tributary of the Kama - the Agidel River (Belaya River), he had the opportunity to catch wild carp. The local guide, a Bashkir, called them sazans, which translated from Turkic means “silt fish.” After the author’s publications, the easy-to-remember word took root among the people, but from the point of view of ichthyology, wild and domestic carp are one species (Cyprinus carpio).
To learn more:
Description of bluefish fish: habitats and fishing methods
The lake form is widespread, valuable and commercially available; it is the basic representative of the genus called common carp. Other designations are also officially used for the taxon: typical, golden, scaly. Often in everyday life there is a name borrowed from the Old Church Slavonic language - korop.
Lifestyle Features
At a young age, the fish adheres to schooling behavior. As he grows older and his food demands increase, he switches to a small-group or solitary lifestyle. The biological activity of the species occurs during the warm season from April to October. The first feeding peak occurs in June, when the fish, hungry after spawning, switch to round-the-clock feeding. With the onset of summer heat and excessive heating of water, feeding time shifts to night, but in rainy, cloudy weather it can search for food all day.
In August-September, the second wave of zhora begins, which continues until the end of October and is associated with the accumulation of energy reserves for the winter. During this period, the carp is carefree and maximally concentrated on finding food. Careless behavior often ends with its capture - it is the beginning and middle of autumn that bring large catches to carp anglers. The korop spends the cold season in wintering pits with little current. Having gathered in large schools with other carp fish, it is in suspended animation and practically does not feed.
Reproduction
For the development of eggs, a sufficiently high environmental temperature of +18-20°C is required, so carp spawning occurs late, usually at the end of May, beginning of June. A sexually mature female of 3-5 years of age acquires several “gentlemen”, peers, and goes to shallow water (40-60 cm), overgrown with soft vegetation. The eggs are laid in portions for 2-4 days. The total number of clutches from one female individual is 0.2-1.0 million eggs. The incubation period of embryo development takes 3-6 days. The hatched larvae develop for several more days in a static position, receiving the necessary nutrients from the yolk sac. Once the fry has swum, they begin actively feeding on zooplankton and small crustaceans.
Habitats and habits
Common river carp, also called scaly carp, lives throughout Europe, Siberia and Asia. In the 19th century, it was brought to America, where, due to the lack of natural enemies, it became very widespread. Carp is unpretentious, but does not tolerate the cold. Found in any body of water, even in ponds with stagnant water. Prefers large reservoirs, lakes, large arms, ponds, quarries, reservoirs.
Young individuals gather in flocks, large ones can live alone. This fish prefers water bodies that are well heated by the sun. They should have a muddy bottom and a lot of vegetation, since it is in such places that carp look for food. It is not found in open areas with a sandy bottom where it is impossible to hide. He loves thickets, snags, holes, and dense vegetation.
Attention!
Carp grows quickly; in one season they can gain up to 500 g of weight. And since its life expectancy is long, it can grow up to 50 kg.
This fish is active in the warm season. Overwinters in holes, under snags, hibernating. It survives the cold well thanks to a thick layer of mucus on the body.
The peculiarity of carp is that it is unpretentious and easily reproduces in captivity. It began to be bred in Ancient China. Carp lived in ponds and were a favorite delicacy of emperors. The extreme fertility of this fish is reflected in the name: “carp” is translated from Greek as “harvest”.
