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Cyprinus carpio - Common Carp (Linnaeus, 1758)

Gyarados

 

Description: The Cyprinus carpio belongs in the superclass Osteichthyes, class Actinopterygii, order Cypriniformes, superfamily Cyprinoidea, family Cyprinidae and subfamily Cyprininae.

 

The subject portrayed was photographed in a pet shop and was not bought nor acquired in any way; the objective of the photography was targeted only at the identification and biological register for educational purposes.

 

Adults of Cyprinus carpio are fresh water fishes. They uproot submerged aquatic vegetation. This fish possesses many synonymised names and varieties. You can check those here: www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=154582

 

- ANATOMY AND PART OF THE MORPHOLOGY BEGINS HERE AND REQUIRES CONFIRMATION - THE FISHES USED WEIGHTED 1.5 – 3.5 KG -

 

Their mouth is generally small, surrounded by short barbs and lack true teeth. They have a wide diet, feeding on mollusks, insects, crustaceans, seeds, vegetation, Benthic worms and more, being then considered omnivorous in nature. They can reach 120cm in length and possess a wide variation in coloring among individuals, which includes orange, golden, silver and more. The average size is somewhere between 40 and 80cm. They are endemic to China and are not native to South America, which means they were introduced.

 

The mouth is protrusive and terminally situated with the maxilla slightly overlapping the mandible. Two pairs of barbells can be found; one pair is short (8 to 10mm), thin and located in the middle of the upper lip and the other pair, longer (14 to 16mm) and thicker, is laterally situated at the mouth commissure. The mouth cavity has no true teeth, instead bearing pharyngeal teeth. The tongue is attached to the floor of the mouth cavity by a thin, median frenulum. The pharynx can be separated into two portions: cranial and caudal. The cranial portion is wide and the root is lined with smooth mucous membranes, while the lateral walls contain gill-slits. The caudal portion of the pharynx possesses a pharyngeal pad, which is small, hard and quadrilateral on the dorsal wall of the pharynx below the occipital region of the skull and opposite to the pharyngeal teeth. The caudal portion contains the pharyngeal teeth. The feeding channel begins with a short esophagus with the proximal tract being slightly wider and forming an intestinal swelling, which resembles a long and straight tube that extends from the esophagus to the caudal end of the body cavity. The swelling mentioned widens cranially and gradually diminishes in diameter as it proceeds caudally. The intestinal tract from the caudal end of the mentioned swelling to the anus forms three loops that consists of two limbs, an ascending and a descending limb. The ascending limb extends cranially until somewhere around the middle of the body cavity where it curves and forms a semicircular downward flexure that continues caudally as the descending limb that extends again to the caudal part of the body cavity where it forms another semicircular downward flexure and continues as the middle loop. The middle loop is the longest of the three loops forming the intestinal tract and extends throughtout the length of the body cavity. It begins as the ascending limb and extends cranially along the ventral wall forming a slight upward inclination and terminates at the transverse septum that proceeds to form a sharp downward flexure and returns as the descending limp that extends caudally to the caudal part of the body cavity where it forms an upward curve and continues as the distal loop. The distal loop begins as an ascending limb that extends cranially to somewhere around the middle of the body cavity where it forms a semicurcular upward flexure and returns as the descending limb that extends caudally to the caudal part of the body cavity and terminates at the anal pore.

 

The liver is large and formed by multiple hepatic fragments that are surrounded and dispersed between the viscera. The gall bladder is a large sac situated on the right side of the cranial part of the intestinal swelling.

 

The spleen is elongated, dark and red with a broad cranial pole and pointed caudal pole. It is located on the right side of the cranial part of the intestinal swelling.

 

The fish breathes through the gills located on both sides of the head. The air bladder is a membranous sac located just ventral to the vertebral column and kidneys and divided into two unequal chambers. The kidneys are narrow, elongated and dark organs with a reddish brown coloring. They are located in the roof of the abdominal cavity, related dorsally to the vetebral column and ventrally to the swim bladder. The gonads are represented by paired ovaries in the form of two large oval bodies with broad cranial poles and a pointed caudal pole that occupies most of the abdominal cavity, from the septum transversum cranially to the anus caudally. A source to the anatomy including more information can be found here: www.vetanat.com/v12-pdf/2.pdf

 

- ANATOMY AND PART OF THE MORPHOLOGY ENDS HERE AND REQUIRES CONFIRMATION - THE FISHES USED WEIGHTED 1.5 – 3.5 KG -

 

Under captivity, Cyprinus carpio was documented to live between 38 and 47 years. In nature, that value is usually halved. Their body, shapes and many traits may vary amongst individuals due to the extreme domestication and breeding they were subjected to. Their size can also vary due to space and diet. The largest recorded carp, caught by British angler, Colin Smith, in 2013 at Etang La Saussaie Fishery, France, weighed 45.59kg, but the average weight of Cyprinus carpio lies in a value between 2 to 14kg.

 

Adults inhabit warm, deep, slow-flowing and still waters such as lowland rivers and large, well vegetated lakes. They are hardy and tolerant to a wide variety of conditions but generally favor large water bodies with slow flowing or standing water and soft bottom sediments. They thrive in large turbid rivers. They're mostly active at dusk and dawn. Spawns along shores or in backwaters. The adults often undertake considerable spawning migration to suitable backwaters and flooded meadows.

 

Other sources:

 

Fish Base: www.fishbase.org/summary/1450

Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_carp

World life expectancy: www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/fish-life-expectancy-wild-com...

 

Other sources can be found in the text, such as the anatomy source and the synonyms source.

 

PROJECT NOAH (Português): www.projectnoah.org/spottings/795487568

 

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Uploaded on March 11, 2018
Taken on December 16, 2017