The four major fish of green, grass, silver carp and bighead carp, together with the domestication of carp and crucian carp, constitute the main force of edible freshwater fish in most parts of China. Interestingly, depending on their habits, classification, and appearance characteristics, these six species of fish can be identified in pairs of twos and divided into three pairs.
Bighead carp
The colloquial name of fathead fish says it all... Bighead carps have huge heads, almost one-third of their body length, and their large mouths "wrap the sky" upwards, as if they can swallow the sky and swallow the sea, which is to swallow the zooplankton in the upper layers of the water body. Its scales are small, its fat body is covered with dark markings, although it appears to be "heavy on the head and tail", it also has a bit of the momentum of the flower monk Lu Zhishen, so it is also known as "flower carp" - it does belong to the same subfamily as silver carp. Don't look at the rough-looking, bighead carp is docile, slow to move, and is a quiet and good neighbor when mixed with other domestic fish.
silver carp
Silver carp also has a large upward-facing mouth, feeding on phytoplankton in the upper layers of the water body, also known as "silver carp" because of its white scales. The head of the silver carp is not small, but it is not as exaggerated as the bighead carp, the body line is more symmetrical, and the abdominal edge protruding from the abdomen is longer than that of the bighead carp, extending from the gills to the anus. Silver carp is lively and active, consumes more oxygen when breathing, and is easy to struggle and be injured after being caught, so it is not as mental as bighead carp in the fish tank... Silver carp and bighead carp in the wet market generally weigh 1.5 to 3 kilograms, and occasionally there are more than ten or twenty pounds of large fish.
Grass carp
Grass carp belongs to the yaross subfamily, commonly known as "grass sticks", because its body is almost slender cylindrical, and it is very convenient to travel through the aquatic grass in the middle layer of the water body. Another feature is that it has shiny diamond-shaped scales neatly arranged on the side of the body, as if wearing a mesh shirt. Grass carp have a wide and protruding mouth and are hypertrophied, with thick lips suitable for tearing flexible blades of grass, and are typical herbivorous fish. Grass carp in the wet market generally weigh 1.5 to 3 kilograms.
herring
Bluefish and grass carp belong to the same subfamily as yaros, which are rare in the north and are often mixed with grass carp in the south. At first glance, the bluefish looks like grass carp, but it is much larger, and the bluefish in the vegetable market are more than 5 kilograms at every turn, and it is not uncommon to have a body length of broken rice! As the name suggests, the blue fish is almost green and black except for the abdominal surface, the body shape is more majestic than the grass carp, and the head is more pointed. Bluefish is also known as "snail green" because it is a benthic carnivorous fish that loves to eat mollusks such as snails and clams. Its mouth is open downwards and it can crush the shell with the "pharyngeal teeth" in its throat.
carp
The carp belongs to the subfamily carp family, which is the most "typical" carp in the hearts of the Chinese people, and there are many varieties. But the ever-changing is not far from its origins, don't care whether the color is blue or black, whether it is red or yellow, how fat the back and belly are, the carp of all species are benthic omnivorous fish, the body is thick, the mouth has a trademark short whisker, the mouth is open downwards like a vacuum cleaner, and you can almost see what to eat under the water. Carp in the wet market generally weigh 1 to 2 kilograms, but like several other carp brothers, fish farmed in fish ponds usually grow up to one or two years old and are on the market, far from their true growth limit...
crucian
Crucian carp, which usually weighs only 0.5 to 1 kg, is the smallest and short and thick in common carps, and is also known as "crucian melon seeds" in the north. Crucian carp also belongs to the subfamily carp, although it is also a benthic omnivorous fish, but it does not like to stir in the turbid water as much as carp, preferring clean waters, and its food is mainly aquatic plants. Because there is no need to "nibble on mud", the mouth does not have to open downwards, but is located roughly in front of the head, and there is no "whisker" for probing. Crucian carp also has a relatively beautiful appearance: the head is relatively short, the body is flattened, and the scales on the side of the body are plain silver or pale black.