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The black carp (Mylopharyngodon piceus) or Chinese black roach is a species of cyprinid freshwater fish and the sole extant species of the genus Mylopharyngodon. It is native to lakes and rivers in East Asia, ranging from the Amur Basin across China to Vietnam. One of the largest cyprinids in the world, the black carp has a typical length of , though it can reach up to in length and in weight. It is carnivorous and generally feeds on invertebrates such as snails, clams and mussels. Black carp, together with bighead carp, silver carp, and grass carp, make up the culturally important "four famous domestic fishes" used in polyculture in China for over a thousand years. It has also been introduced in the United States as one of the invasive "Asian carps", though it is not as widely distributed worldwide as the other three. In China, black carp is widely cultivated for food and Chinese medicine, being one of the most highly esteemed and expensive domestic food fish, and partly because of its diet and limited food supply, is the most scarce and expensive in the marketplace among the "four famous domestic fishes". Black carp are elongated fish with a fusiform body. They appear dusky gray, brown or bluish black and have dark fins. Their dorsal fin is high and pointed. In comparison to grass carp, the distances from the eye to the superior and inferior edges of the pre-operculum are respectively longer, contributing to the elongate appearance of the scaleless head. Unlike in grass carp, the upper lip does not appear to protrude beyond the lower lip when viewed from above with the fish's mouth closed. Black carp have large cycloid scales on their body and a forked tail fin behind a broad caudal peduncle. The black carp was first accidentally introduced into the United States during a grass carp shipment from Asia in the 1970s. The black carp was later intentionally introduced to the US in the 1980s for use in retention ponds and aquaculture facilities to manage yellow grub and snails populations. It was also to be used as food fish.

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Related concepts (5)

Bighead carp

The bighead carp (Hypophthalmichthys nobilis) is a species of cyprinid freshwater fish native to East Asia, and is one of several Asian carps introduced into North America. It is one of the most intensively exploited fishes in fish farming, with an annual worldwide production of over three million tonnes in 2013, principally from China. Unlike the omnivorous common carp, bighead carp are primarily filter-feeding algae eaters, preferentially consuming zooplankton but also phytoplankton and detritus.

Grass carp

The grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) is a species of large herbivorous freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae, native to the Pacific Far East, with a native range stretching from northern Vietnam to the Amur River on the Sino-Russian border. This Asian carp is the only species of the genus Ctenopharyngodon. Grass carp are resident fish of large turbid rivers and associated floodplain lakes/wetlands with a wide range of temperature tolerance, and spawn at temperatures of .

Silver carp

The silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) is a species of freshwater cyprinid fish, a variety of Asian carp native to China and eastern Siberia, from the Amur River drainage in the north to the Xi Jiang River drainage in the south. Although a threatened species in its natural habitat, it has long been cultivated in China. 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.