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What Food Do Carp Eat?

Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Related Tags: carp | aquatic | crayfish | fish | plants
 

Instructions

Types

  • Step 1:
    The common carp is an omnivore, a creature that eats both plants and animals. Carp live in rivers, streams and lakes, feeding on anything that tastes good to them. A typical carp will eat aquatic plants, insects, crayfish, dead fish, mollusks such as freshwater clams and nuts that fall from trees into the water.

Considerations

  • Step 1:
    Carp normally will feed on the bottom of whatever waterway they are in, but have been known to take food from the water's surface and even have been observed chasing other fish species. They like to travel in groups, with as many as 20 carp swimming in the same area. Carp like to hang around what anglers call "structure," such as downed trees in the water or sunken logs.

Function

  • Step 1:
    Carp have the ability to eat foods that other fish cannot. They have what are known as pharyngeal teeth, which are teeth that are set well back in the throat of the carp. These teeth allow a carp to crush and grind up such things as snails, crayfish, mussels, nuts and other hard food items that most fish cannot eat. The carp spits out whatever it doesn't want to swallow, and the rest goes down into the gullet. Many anglers are reluctant to put their hand in a carp's mouth, but a carp cannot bite you.

Size

  • Step 1:
    The world record for carp is believed to be one caught in Romania that tipped the scales at 83 lbs. In the United States, carp that reach 20 lbs. are common. The record carp in Minnesota, for instance, is 55 lbs., caught in 1952, while Michigan's biggest carp on record is a 61-lb. specimen landed in 1974.

Expert Insight

  • Step 1:
    One species of carp, called a grass carp, eats mostly plants. It was introduced into the United States in 1963 to control aquatic weeds, but it was soon learned that they didn't stop at the weeds when it came to their diet. Grass carp will eat most any aquatic vegetation, and have even been seen coming out of the water to eat plants growing along the shore. These carp are now illegal in every state because of the potential damage they can inflict on plant species in waterways.

What Food Do Carp Eat? Provided by eHow.com
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