European Carp

Although tolerant of most conditions, common carp prefer large bodies of slow or standing water and soft, vegetative sediments. As schooling fish, they prefer to be in groups of five or more. They naturally live in temperate climates in fresh or slightly brackish water with a pH of 6.5–9.0 and salinity up to about 0.5%, and temperatures of 3 to 35 °C (37–95 °F). The ideal temperature is 23 to 30 °C (73–86 °F), with spawning beginning at 17 to 18 °C (63–64 °F); they easily survive winter in a frozen-over pond, as long as some free water remains below the ice. Carp are able to tolerate water with very low oxygen levels, by gulping air at the surface.

Common carp are omnivorous. They can eat a herbivorous diet of aquatic plants, plant tubers, and seeds, but prefer to scavenge the bottom for insects, crustaceans (including zooplankton and crawfish), molluscs, benthic worms, fish eggs, and fish remains. Common carp feed throughout the day, with the most intensive feeding at night and around sunrise.

The carp has a robust build, with a dark gold sheen that is most prominent on its head. Its body is adorned with large, conspicuous scales that are very shiny. It has large pectoral fins and a tapering dorsal fin running down the last two-thirds of its body, getting progressively higher as it nears the carp's head. Its caudal and anal fins may either be a dark bronze or washed with a rubbery orange hue. Two or three spines are on the anal fin, the first being serrated, and the dorsal fin has three or four anterior spines, the first of which is also serrated. The mouth of the carp is downward-turned, with two pairs of barbels, one pair at the corners of the upper lip, and the other on the lower. Wild common carp are typically slimmer than domesticated forms, with body length about four times body height, red flesh, and a forward-protruding mouth.

An egg-layer, a typical adult female can lay 300,000 eggs in a single spawn. Although carp typically spawn in the spring, in response to rising water temperatures and rainfall, carp can spawn multiple times in a season. In commercial operations, spawning is often stimulated using a process called hypophysation, where lyophilized pituitary extract is injected into the fish. The pituitary extract contains gonadotropic hormones, which stimulate gonad maturation and sex steroid production, ultimately promoting reproduction.