The carp belongs to the Cyprinidae family, itself known as the carp family. At an age of three, marketable carp have an average length of 40 centimetres and weigh about two kilograms. The fish has a strong, cylindrical body and a long dorsal fin. A characteristic of the carp are its pharyngeal teeth, which are in three rows at the back of the carps throat just at the beginning of its gullet. These teeth are used for crushing and grinding food.
The carp’s back is green-brown to black and the belly a yellow-white and it has four thick barbels (whiskers) around its mouth. It grows much slower in the wild than it does in breeding. In their fourth year wild carp can reach a weight of about one kilogram and a length of 35 centimetres. It reaches sexual maturity only at four or five years old. In late May and in June it spawns in the riparian zones where aquatic plants are found, to which the adhesive eggs can stick. The larvae are about five millimetres long, and in the early stages of their lives stick to these plants, where they then feed on small plankton.
Carp are shoal fish and spend their winter in the deepest water they can find. Their extreme inactive state during these cold months means they do not need to feed very often. Wild carp are hardly ever caught today.
