Life habits and morphological characteristics of Yunnan carp (Yunnan yellow tip)

Yunnan carp (Cyprinus (cyprinus) yunnanensis) belongs to the order Cypriniformes, Cyprinidae, Cyprin subfamily, and Cyprinus genus. Commonly known as: Yellow Pointed Mouth. English name: Yunnan carp.

Endangerment level: Endangered.

The body shape is like a carp. The head is long, pointed and narrow. The tip of the snout is long and the front of the nostrils is slightly bulging. The mouth is sub-superior, with the lower jaw slightly protruding. No beard, or occasionally a pair of short beards at the corners of the mouth. The eyes are larger. The scales are larger, with 35-37 lateral line scales. Both the dorsal and anal fins have hard spines with fine teeth on the trailing edge; the starting points of the dorsal and pelvic fins are almost opposite, and the outer edge of the dorsal fin is concave; the thoracic, ventral and anal fins are all small. The crown of the main second tooth of the hypopharyngeal tooth has 3-4 grooves. The back of the body is yellow-green, and the sides of the body are gradually lighter with silvery white. The back and tail fins are grass green with grayish black. The chest, abdomen and anal fin are golden yellow. The lower lobe of the caudal fin is slightly reddish.

It likes to live in shallow water covered with aquatic plants. It mostly swims and eats in the middle and lower layers of the water body and moves quickly. It has strong adaptability and is not easy to die out of water. Omnivorous, they mainly feed on animal food, such as small fish, shrimps, aquatic insect larvae, etc. Some individuals also eat aquatic plants. The spawning period is from April to May, and the eggs adhere to aquatic plants. Individuals with a body length of 130 mm have reached sexual maturity. Generally, growth increases rapidly and significantly after 2-3 years of age. Common individuals are 100-200 mm in length, and large individuals can weigh about 500 grams.

Yunnan carp is a species endemic to my country and is only distributed in Qilu Lake, Yunnan.

Yunnan carp is a medium-sized carp with excellent meat quality. It was originally a common economic fish in the production area. Since the introduction of exotic farmed fish into Qilu Lake in 1964, many small non-economic fish have been introduced, and these small wild fish have multiplied in large numbers and eaten the eggs of Yunnan carp. Coupled with the influence of natural and human factors, the water level has dropped sharply, resulting in Most of the aquatic plants in the lake dried up and died, destroying the spawning grounds; coupled with the discharge of sewage, the lake became eutrophic and the Yunnan carp lost its original living environment. There has been no trace of Yunnan carp for many years.

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