Seasonal Changes

Carp congregate in huge numbers in shallow bays, backwaters, and sluggish rivers during late spring and early summer to spawn, when water temperatures exceed 63° F. (17° C). The ritual is a noisy one; their great commotion stirs up mud and uproots vegetation as they thrash in waters often shallow enough to leave their backs exposed. A single female can lay as many as one million eggs a season, and although no real care is given to the eggs or fry, sufficient numbers survive to maintain their widespread range.

Carp are gregarious and omnivorous, feeding on vegetation and animal matter. To feed, they uproot the vegetation, stirring up a cloud of mud, plants, and debris. Then they back off and swim through the mess, sucking up the edibles, including small snails, worms, and algae. This behavior makes them very unpopular in many areas because of the devastation they create to spawning and feeding beds of other fish. The fish has acute senses of taste and smell. It sucks up debris and blows it out into the water. The fish can then pick out edible bits while it is in suspension and grind them into usable food with its mandibles. This enables the fish to survive where other species could not.

Carp move to deeper water in winter, hibernating in all but warm latitudes. They have little tolerance to prolonged low-oxygen conditions and those that remain in shallow lakes during a bad winter will often suffocate by the hundreds.

Click to Listen!