Common carp

Common carp

Scientific name: Cyprinus carpio
Situation in the wild: Common
Jerusalem Zoo: Large group in bird lake
Carp is a common name for various freshwater fish originally from Eurasia and southeast Asia, where it was also domesticated for human use and long long ago became an important food fish to humans, as well as popular ornamental fishes (like koi and goldfish). It spread east and west to Europe thousands of years ago. The success of the Carp is due to the fact that it is extremely adaptable. The Carp come from temperate climates, charachterized with great changes between temperatures. It can withhold extremely cold temperatures on one side, or very hot temperatures on the other. It can also withstand very low concentrations of oxygen, so it can also live in polluted waters, with extreme changes in acidity, PH levels and salinity. Carp fish are not picky when it comes to food either. In the wild this fish will eat insect larvae that live on the bottom of the water, using a pair of tentacles to find them, but it will actually eat anything it finds. In Israel, the Carp spread only towards the end of the 20th century, after being imported from Eastern Europe with development of the fish industry. The Carp now populates the Jordan River area, including the lake Kineret and rivers, after some individuals escaped fish pools. In fish pools, it will reach 30-50 cm, then it will be marketed in the fish trade, but in the wild it can reach 120cm! Large individuals can be seen at the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo, if you stop and look into the centeral bird lake, or at the Sumatran Tiger pool. Why are they here? They did not escape the fish pools, but were brought here intentionally. Since Carp will eat almost anything, it is used as a natural sanitizer of the zoo water pools, as it eats all organic waste that accumulates at the bottom, insect larvae as well as its regular food.