Grass carp in Brazil (Video)

Video credit: Herman Hennig (Argentina)
Review: Abdel Rahman El Gamal (Founder of the video channel)

According to published reports, grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus) was first introduced into Brazil by the government in 1968 from Hungary. Afterward, the species was introduced in 1979 along with other Chinese carps by CEPTA/IBAMA (Research and Training Center in Aquaculture), State of Sao Paulo.

Carp polyculture in Brazil has been promoted as a complementary rural activity for small-scale family farmers in southern Brazil whereas farmers’ associations such as Braspeixe organizes a fish festival during which different carp dishes are offered to the public. In such small-scale farms, on-farm and/or commercial inputs to fertilize and feed carp in polyculture systems.

Some farms stock grass carp along with other species in recreation fishing centers which attract interested people.

The contribution of grass carp to Brazilian aquaculture seems not that significant especially when all species of carps, barbels, and other cyprinids are grouped in the FAO statistics whereas their combined production amounted 20,693 tons in 2015 compared to the total aquaculture production which amounted 575,260 tons in the same year. However, grass carp –along with other exotic species- represent to researchers an experimental fish species for a variety of research projects including spawning induction and genetic analysis.

Permanent link to this article: https://fishconsult.org/?p=14079