#2128 · 🐟 fish
Grass Carp
🇳🇱 Graskarper ·Ctenopharyngodon idella
8 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
what is it?
The grass carp ( Ctenopharyngodon idella ) is the species of fish with the largest reported production in aquaculture globally, over five million tonnes per year. It is a large herbivorous freshwater fish species of the family Cyprinidae native to eastern Asia, with a native range from northern Vietnam to the Amur River on the Siberia-China border. This Asian carp is the only species of the genus Ctenopharyngodon .
base stats
Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).
fun facts
- Spotted 10 times in the Netherlands on iNaturalist.
- 3,522 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Scientifically named by Achille Valenciennes in 1844 (182 years ago).
- Not originally Dutch: it was introduced to the Netherlands.
fact sheet
- English
- Grass Carp
- Nederlands
- Graskarper
- scientific name
- Ctenopharyngodon idella
- class
- Actinopterygii
- order
- Cypriniformes
- family
- Xenocyprididae
- IUCN Red List
- LC · least concern
- in NL
- introduced
- sightings in NL
- 10
- sightings in Europe
- 567
- sightings worldwide
- 3,522
- GBIF records in NL
- 3,270
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1844 by Achille Valenciennes
IUCN in Dutch: niet bedreigd. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 128500, Wikidata Q76098, GBIF 2362030, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.