Indigenous to China, the black carp, Mylopharyngodon piceus is widely cultivated for food and for Chinese medicine. The black carp grows to a length of up to three feet (1 m), and over 70 pounds (32 kg), generally feeding on snails and mussels. Black carp, together with bighead, silver, and grass carps, make up the culturally important "four famous domestic fishes" used in polyculture in China for over a thousand years, and known as "Asian carps" in the United States. Black carp are not as widely distributed worldwide as the other three. In China, black carp are the most highly esteemed and expensive foodfish among the "four domestic fishes"[1] and, partly because of its diet and limited food supply, is the most scarce and expensive in the marketplace[2].
Black carp in the United States
The nature of the black carp's diet has led to its use in the United States in the control of snails in aquaculture. Snails are obligate alternate hosts of trematode pests that can cause substantial losses to aquaculture crops. Some state aquaculture laws require the carp to be bred as triploids, to render them sterile, and thus minimize the potential for the fish to escape and create self-sustaining populations. However, the use of triploids does require the maintenance and use of fertile diploid brood stock at least at some location, for production of the triploids. No state allows the intentional release of black carp, sterile or otherwise. However, the United States Geological Survey reports seven confirmed black carp caught in the Mississippi River basin. Rivers where black carp have been captured include the Mississippi, the White in Arkansas, the Atchafalaya and Red in Louisiana, and the Osage in Missouri. Some of the captured fish have been confirmed to be diploid and assumed fertile; one has been confirmed to be a triploid and assumed sterile. In Louisiana, there are many other reports by knowledgeable fishers that have not been verified by biologists [3]. Black carp are considered to be a serious threat to mollusks native to the United States, many of which are critically endangered. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife service has not listed the black carp as an "injurious species," although an effort is currently underway to add the black carp to the injurious species list found in the Code of Federal Regulations.
References
- ^ Chu, X. et al. 1989. The fishes of Yunnan China. Part 1. Cyprinidae. Science Press, Beijing, China.
- ^ Chu X. 1984.The fishes of Fujian Province. Part 1. Fujian Science and Technology Press, Fujian, China.
- ^ Nico et al. 2005. Black carp: biological synopsis and risk assessment of an introduced fish American Fisheries Society Special Publication 32. 337 pp.
