Pam Thiel
(Project Leader)
555 Lester Avenue
Onalaska, WI 54650

Email
Phone:
(608) 783-8434
Fax:
(608) 783-8450

Black Carp

The black carp, Mylopharyngodon piceus, was brought to the U.S. in the early 1970's from eastern Asia. The black carp and grass carp resemble each other except that on the black carp, the gill rakers are fused and hardened. These gill rakers are used in crushing shells of mollusks and crustaceans, the primary food of the black carp. Once established, this species of carp may help to destroy our already threatened freshwater mussel and snail populations. The black carp is also known to feed on zebra mussels. In the 1980's the black carp was imported for use as a food fish and to control the spread of trematodes (parasites) in snails at catfish farms. The only known record of escape occurred in 1994 in Missouri when thirty or more black carp escaped with several thousand bighead carp into the Osage River in Missouri. There has been at least one sighting in the wild on Horseshoe Lake, in Alexander County, Illinois. Black carp have reached the size of 4.3 ft and over 79 lbs.

Photo courtesy of Leo G. Nico, U.S.G.S.