grass carp

Open encyclopedia reference

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.

Wikipedia contributors, Grass carp; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T02:52:45.932780+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Ctenopharyngodon idella (Valenciennes, 1844)

Name authority

(Valenciennes, 1844)

Common name

grass carp

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Teleostei

Order

Cypriniformes

Family

Cyprinidae

Genus

Ctenopharyngodon

Extinction status

Not supplied by this source

Source habitat flags: Marine: no · Freshwater: yes · Terrestrial: no. These do not form a complete habitat description.

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. gigaclassActinopterygii
8. superclassActinopteri
9. classTeleostei
10. orderCypriniformes
11. familyCyprinidae Rafinesque, 1815
12. subfamilyXenocypridinae Günther, 1868
13. genusCtenopharyngodon Steindachner, 1866
14. speciesCtenopharyngodon idella (Valenciennes, 1844)

Close classified relatives

No other member of this genus is present in the selected snapshot.

Browse 2,547 records assigned to Cyprinidae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. Cuvier, G., & Valenciennes, A. (1844). Histoire naturelle des poissons. Tome Dix-Septième. Suite Du Livre Dix-Huitième. Cyprinoïdes, 17. Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:326B3. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.