A native of China and the warmer parts of Japan.
The Common Carp is one of the most remarkable fishes which swim. In early times in England it was extensively cultivated as a food-fish, and in Germany at the present day is as much domesticated as the sheep, pig, or ox. The fish-culturists have indeed done extraordinary things with it, having, for instance, produced a variety with a single row of scales down each side and sometimes on the back only, called the Mirror-carp, or King-carp. There is also the Leather-carp, with no scales at all, which is much esteemed in Germany.
There is reason to believe that the common carp was originally a native of the East, and it certainly has been domesticated in China for many hundreds of years. Thence it is supposed to have been imported to Germany and Sweden, reaching England some time in the early years of the fifteenth century. In that curious work the "Boke of St. Albans," published in 1496, it is said that the carp is a "dayntous fysshe, but there ben fewe in Englonde, and therefore I wryte the lesse of hym."
China is the home of the Gold-fish, a pretty little carp common in that country and the warmer parts of Japan. The Chinese have distorted Nature with regard to this fish even more than the Germans have the common carp. Their most extraordinary monstrosity is, perhaps, the Telescope-fish, which has a huge tail and projecting eyes. It is believed that gold-fish were not known in England before the year 1691.
The carp has many interesting peculiarities. It is an extraordinarily fertile fish, and one of the most rapid growers in fresh-water. Under the most favourable conditions it attains a weight of from 3 to 3½ lbs. in three years. In a pond which is overstocked, carp hardly increase in weight at all; while, on the other hand, their growth in hot countries is very much greater than above stated. A fish of from 4 to 5 lbs. may contain, on an average, from 400,000 to 500,000 eggs; these are spawned in May or June, and hatched in from twelve to sixteen days, according to the temperature.
The life of this curious fish may be one of extraordinary duration, carp having been known to attain an age of a hundred years or more. When very old, they are apt to go blind and develop white marks, due to the growth of funguses.
In the winter carp either bury themselves in the mud, or lie among the water-weeds or roots of trees at the bottom. They are vegetarians for the most part, with no teeth in their mouths, but strong, powerful grinding-teeth in their throats; they are believed to regurgitate their food and chew it, somewhat as a cow chews the cud.
With regard to the weight which this fish attains, one of 19 lbs. was taken at Sheffield Park in 1882. This was exceptionally large; but one still larger, weighing 21 lbs. 10 ozs., was caught at Bayham Abbey, near Lamberhurst, in 1870; while one of 22 lbs. was exhibited many years ago to the Zoological Society. In the German lakes these fish reach a weight of 40 lbs., or even more.
Carp will, however, occasionally eat small fish, and have even been caught with a salmon-fly.