Grass carp: Where It Lives, Map & Facts

Where the grass carp lives – recorded in 17 countries, with quick facts from Wikidata and an introduction from Wikipedia.

Scientific name	Ctenopharyngodon idella
Group	Bony fish
Status	Least concern (Wikidata, IUCN category label)
Found in	17 countries
Continents	Africa, Asia, Europe, North America
Class	Ray-finned fish
Order	Cypriniformes
Family	Cyprinidae

Where does the grass carp live?

Open-licence (CC0 / CC BY) wild records published on GBIF place the grass carp in 17 countries and territories across Africa, Asia, Europe and North America. Wikidata gives its range as: People's Republic of China, Yangtze River. In Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, France, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Poland, Serbia, Russia, Sweden, Ukraine, South Africa it is listed as introduced (GRIIS checklists via GBIF).

United States
Netherlands (introduced)
Germany (introduced)
Denmark (introduced)
United Kingdom (introduced)
Sweden (introduced)
Belgium (introduced)
France (introduced)
Switzerland (introduced)
Ukraine (introduced)
Serbia (introduced)
Canada
Russia (introduced)
Luxembourg
South Africa (introduced)
Poland (introduced)
Chinese Taipei

Countries with at least a handful of records (a minimum share of the species’ records, to leave out vagrants and escapes). Records with coordinates only; captive and fossil records excluded.

Is the grass carp endangered?

The grass carp’s conservation status recorded in Wikidata is “Least concern” (an IUCN Red List category label). Source: Wikidata.

What kind of animal is the grass carp?

The grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) is a ray-finned fish in the order Cypriniformes and the family Cyprinidae, genus Ctenopharyngodon. (Taxonomy from Wikidata.)

About the grass carp

The grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) is a species of large herbivorous freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae, native to the Pacific Far East, with a native range stretching from northern Vietnam to the Amur River on the Sino-Russian border. This Asian carp is the only species of the genus Ctenopharyngodon.

Grass carp are resident fish of large turbid rivers and associated floodplain lakes/wetlands with a wide range of temperature tolerance, and spawn at temperatures of 20 to 30 °C (68 to 86 °F). It has been cultivated as a food fish in China for centuries, being known as one of the "Four Great Domestic Fish" (Chinese: 四大家鱼), but was later introduced to Europe and the United States for aquatic weed control, becoming the fish species with the largest reported farmed production globally, over five million tonnes per year.

Text in “About” is quoted from the Wikipedia article Grass carp (revision 1376204552), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: lead section excerpted verbatim, formatting removed. Quick facts, taxonomy and status: Wikidata Q76098 (CC0). Countries and pin: GBIF.org occurrence records (CC0 / CC BY 4.0).