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Grass Carp

Ctenopharyngodon idella

Photo by Tukup
Published on Project Noah
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41.32, -94.26

Field Notes

Description:

This fish is a long, torpedo-shaped heavy bodied fish that is dark olive green on the back, lightening as it goes down the sides to a nearly white belly. This can clearly not be seen in the lousy picture I got of it :-) From what I could see of these, they were about 4-5 feet long, which would be right as they had been in the pond for some time.

Habitat:

These fish were in a large pond in central Iowa.

Notes:

This is a herbivorous species from Eastern Asia that has been introduced into waterways and ponds to control aquatic plants. The pond they were in was nearly choked with the plants when they were introduced. When I saw it the plants had been greatly reduced.

I tried for a long time to get a picture of these large fish. All of a sudden there would be a swell, a fin would stick out and be gone. The total fruit of my time is these three pictures: An opaque form, a dorsal fin and a pectoral fin. Enjoy :-)

Note: These are sterile "triploid" carp that cannot reproduce. See link at bottom of reference box to the right.

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