Carpiodes carpio

Carpiodes carpio
	Carpiodes carpio
Systematics
without rank:	Otophysa
Order :	Carp-like (Cypriniformes)
Subordination :	Catostomoidei
Family :	Suckers (Catostomidae)
Genre :	Carpiodes
Type :	Carpiodes carpio
Scientific name
	Carpiodes carpio
	( Rafinesque , 1820)

Carpiodes carpio , engl. River carpsucker, is a species of fish from the sucker carp familyand is native to North America. It isclosely relatedto the highfin carpsucker ( Carpiodes velifer ) and the quillback ( Carpiodes cyprinus ).

Occurrence

Carpiodes carpio is originally found in the Mississippi river system, and also from the states of Pennsylvania to Montana . It is very common in Tennessee . It has also become native to the rivers of the Gulf of Mexico such as the Calcasieu River or the Rio Grande in Texas , as well as the states of Louisiana and New Mexico . It can now also be found in Lake Erie and the lower Maumee River in Ohio . There it was accidentally introduced into the water with a stock of Buffalo fish ( Ictiobus ssp.) Between 1920 and 1930 . There are still no studies on the extent to which the population of Carpiodes carpio has spread there. However, since there are no natural enemies, growth is assumed. The fish live mainly in rivers and reservoirs, preferring slow-flowing large and deep rivers with sand or mud bottom. Young fish, on the other hand, tend to be in schools in side arms and small rivers. In general, the species shows good adaptation to different aquatic habitats. It also occurs in shallower water as soon as there is enough organic material available as a food source.

description

The fish has a characteristic lip, a lower mouth, a slightly curved back and a compressed body shape. The dorsal fin consists of 18 fin rays. The back is olive brown. In young animals the fins are mostly colorless, in older specimens they turn dark yellow. Carpiodes carpio has an average length of 34 centimeters, but can also reach lengths of 64 centimeters. The largest river carpsucker caught on a line to date weighed 6.01 kilograms and was 71 centimeters long and was caught in a sandpit in the state of Nebraska in 1999 . Male animals sometimes show a pearl-like spawning rash on the head area.

Way of life

Carpiodes carpio lives benthopelagic and feeds mainly on detritus , algae, small crustaceans and insect larvae, which it filters out of the muddy bottom at the bottom of the water. In the waters it inhabits it has hardly any competition for feeding. Young fish of Carpiodes carpio are often preyed on by predatory fish such as pike , muskellung , eyeglasses and largemouth bass . Also Heron belong to its natural enemies. Its life expectancy is usually between two and four years, although some specimens can live up to ten years. The fish species reaches sexual maturity at two to three years. They migrate up to 10 kilometers downstream. There they spawn in the spring at water temperatures between 18 and 19 ° C, whereby the female can produce up to 100,000 eggs.