Life habits and morphological characteristics of small carp (Dianchi carp)

Cyprinus (mesocyprinus) micristius is also known as: medium carp. It belongs to the order Cypriniformes, family Cyprinidae, subfamily Cyprinidae, and genus Cyprinidae. Commonly known as: Caihu, Ma Yu, and Ma Bianyu. English name: Dianchi carp.

Endangerment level: Endangered.

The body is similar to a carp, with flat sides, slightly raised back, and round and straight abdomen. Head tapered. The muzzle is short and slightly pointed. Mouth end, horseshoe shape. Thin lips. There are 2 pairs of barbels, the muzzle barbels are longer than the mouth barbels. The scales are larger, with 36-39 lateral line scales. Both the dorsal and anal fins have hard spines, and the trailing edges have fine teeth; the starting points of the dorsal and pelvic fins are opposite or the dorsal fin is later, and the outer edges are slightly concave; the even fins are both large. The second and third crowns of the main hypopharyngeal teeth have a groove. The head and back of the body are blue-grey, the sides and abdomen are light yellow; the upper part of the eyes is red; the back and tail fins are gray-green, and the edges of other fins are yellow.

It mostly inhabits still water bodies with many aquatic plants and is a middle and lower layer fish. The food habits are mixed, mainly animal food, with aquatic insects and shrimps accounting for the majority, followed by small snails, silken algae, cladocerans, etc., and occasionally a small amount of small fish. The breeding season is in May and June, and a few species extend to early July. They like to lay eggs on sandy beaches near the lake. The number of eggs they carry is small, usually only about 10,000 eggs. The individual is not large, generally 120-160 mm in length. It grows slowly and generally weighs about 250 grams.

The small carp is endemic to my country and is only distributed in Dianchi Lake, Yunnan. Its historical output is not high. In recent years, Dianchi Lake has developed a large number of high-backed crucian carp and carp. However, the reproduction rate of small carp is low and the growth is slow. It is at a disadvantage in the competition for survival. In addition, the water level of Dianchi Lake has dropped, water quality pollution, excessive fishing and careless introduction, etc. As a result, the population of small carp has declined sharply, and no trace has been seen in the past 20 years.

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