''Cyprinus rubrofuscus'', the Amur carp, is a species of

cyprinid Cyprinidae is a family of freshwater fish commonly called the carp or minnow family. It includes the carps, the true minnows, and relatives like the barbs and barbels. Cyprinidae is the largest and most diverse fish family and the largest ver ...

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of ...

, and is the wild form of the well-known

koi or more specifically , are colored varieties of the Amur carp ('' Cyprinus rubrofuscus'') that are kept for decorative purposes in outdoor koi ponds or water gardens. Koi is an informal name for the colored variants of ''C. rubrofuscus'' ke ...

. It is widespread in the fresh waters of eastern Asia, native to China,

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

and Laos from the

Amur The Amur (russian: река́ Аму́р, ), or Heilong Jiang (, "Black Dragon River", ), is the world's tenth longest river, forming the border between the Russian Far East and Northeastern China ( Inner Manchuria). The Amur proper is long, ...

to Red River basins, and has also been introduced outside its native range. It is known for its muddy flavor and boniness, hence, it is not commonly eaten by locals except when stewed. In the past, it was considered a subspecies of the common (or European) carp, often under the scientific name ''C. carpio haematopterus'' (a synonym), but the two differ in

genetics Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar wor ...

Zhou, J., Wu, Q., Wang, Z. and Ye, Y. (2004). Molecular Phylogenetics of Three Subspecies of Common carp Cyprinus Carpio, based on sequence analysis of cytochrome b and control region of mtDNA. Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research 42(4): 266–269. and

meristics Meristics is an area of ichthyology and herpetology which relates to counting quantitative features of fish and reptiles, such as the number of fins or scales. A meristic (countable trait) can be used to describe a particular species of fish, or us ...

, leading recent authorities to recognize them as separate species. Although earlier studies also have found minor differences between northern ("''haematopterus''") and southern ("''viridiviolaceus''") populations in Eastern Asia in both meristics and genetics, later studies have found that they are not monophyletic.Wang, C., Liu, H., Liu, Z., Wang, J., Zou, J., and Li, X. (2010). Mitochondrial genetic diversity and gene flow of common carp from main river drainages in China. Freshwater Biology 55(9): 1905–1915. However, any

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups o ...

structure is difficult to establish because of widespread translocations of carp between different regions. The parent species of the domesticated

carp is an East Asian carp, possibly ''C. rubrofuscus'' (not ''C. carpio'').Craig, J.F., eds. (2015). Freshwater Fisheries Ecology. p. 297. Wiley-Blackwell. .

References

Cyprinus Freshwater fish of China Fish of East Asia Freshwater fish of Asia Taxa named by Bernard Germain de Lacépède Fish described in 1803 {{Cyprininae-stub