Life habits and morphological characteristics of Guangxi black carp

Procypris merus belongs to the order Cypriniformes, family Cyprinidae, subfamily Cyprinidae, and genus Procypris merus. Commonly known as: black carp, black carp, black crucian carp, black hook, black carp. English name: Chinese ink carp.

Endangerment level: Vulnerable.

The sides of the body are flat and rhombus-shaped, the back is very high, and the abdomen is straight. The head is small, the snout is longer, and the snout length is greater than or equal to the head length behind the eyes. At the end of the mouth, it is half-moon shaped; the lips are very thick, with many obvious and small papillary protrusions on the surface. There are 2 pairs of barbels, which are longer. The jaw barbels are thicker and longer than the kiss barbels. The lateral line is slightly downward curved, with 41-45 lateral line scales. Both the dorsal and anal fins have strong spines, and their rear edges are serrated. The outer edge of the dorsal fin is concave, the base is long, and the branched fin rays are 16-18. The pectoral fins are longer, with the end reaching or exceeding the starting point of the pelvic fins. The head and back of the body are dark black, and the abdomen is silvery white; there is a black spot in the front of each scale, which connects to form obvious vertical stripes on the side of the body; each fin is dark black.

Wuyuan carp is a fish in the middle and lower layers of rivers. It mostly inhabits water bodies with rocky bottoms in deep flowing water. It can also live at the bottom of water bodies with slower flowing speed. It has the habit of migrating short distances. After laying eggs in winter, it goes upstream and swims downstream during floods. It has a mixed diet. It often sucks benthic animals and plants from the surface of underwater rocks with its mouth, mainly small snails, mussels, and clams. It also eats a small amount of aquatic insect larvae, water earthworms, and algae. Because sucking is the way this fish feeds, a small amount of sediment is often brought into the intestines. Generally, they need to be over 2 years old to reach sexual maturity, and the spawning season is from November to January of the following year; the eggs are produced in batches, are yellow, sinking, and have a certain degree of stickiness; the spawning grounds are mostly in fast-moving water and a lot of algae. The beach stone edge and the end of the beach.

Wuyuan carp is distributed in the trunk and tributaries of the Xijiang River system and is a common high-quality edible fish in Guangxi. Common ones on the market are mostly individuals weighing 0.5-1.0 kg, and the largest individual can grow to weigh 7 kg. Although the yield is not high, its body is thick and the meat is delicious, so it is regarded as a top-quality economic fish.

Due to the migration habit of this species, dams and gates have been built in each tributary of the river, which hinders the migration of the river and affects its life and reproduction; the discharge of industrial pollution has caused the deterioration of water quality; coupled with factors such as overfishing, its resource volume has declined. , has now become a vulnerable species.

animal tags：