Life cycle
Common carp mature at the length of 30 cm when they are 2-3 years old. Females can carry up to 3 million eggs. Once mature, adults of both sexes migrate into shallow wetlands to spawn in the spring. Once released by females, the eggs are immediately fertilized and stick to submerged vegetation. The eggs develop and hatch within a week. Each female can produce several hundreds of yearlings and carp can quickly become superabundant.
What they affect
Common carp degrade water quality and destroy habitat for waterfowl, fish and amphibians. They are voracious feeders that forage primarily on plant seeds and insect larvae that live in lake sediments. While searching for food, carp burrow into lake sediments and in the process they uproot aquatic vegetation, increasing water turbidity and releasing large quantities of sediment-bound nutrients, which stimulate algal blooms. It is estimated that over 70% of lakes in southern Minnesota have lost their plant cover and suffer from excessive algal blooms due to carp’s foraging activity. Tens of thousands of hectares of waterfowl habitat have been devastated by common carp.
Where they're found
Currently, common carp are established in 48 states in the U.S
In Minnesota, they have become superabundant in some lakes, primarily in central and southern Minnesota, but have not become established in others – for example the Boundary Waters. Research at the Minnesota Aquatic Invasive Species Research Center has established that two simple ecological filters – lake productivity and abundance of bluegills – control the success of carp.
Carp become invasive in regions with productive lakes that also have low abundance of bluegills, which eat carp eggs and larvae. In all other lakes, those that are clear and oligotrophic or which have high densities of bluegills, carp are not invasive because their eggs and larvae do not appear to be able to survive the critical developmental period.
Visit Minnesota Aquatic Invasive Species Research Center (MAISRC) for more information. https://www.maisrc.umn.edu/common-carp