MHBS received a giant yellow cheek carp from Danjiangkou Reservoir on October 26th, 2019.  

Museum of Hydrobiological Sciences (MHBS) at Institute of Hydrobiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IHB) received a giant yellow cheek carp from Danjiangkou Reservoir on October 26th, 2019.  

MHBS Researchers immediately carried out a professional measurement on the giant fish. Results showed that its body length was 1.68 meters, body weight was 50 kilograms (after being frozen), and the number of lateral line scales was 109. Its age was estimated at eight years by counting growth layers in its scale. The giant specimen will be on display after being well processed.  

Yellow cheek carp (Elopichthys bambusa) belongs to the Cypriniformes order, the Cyprinidae family, and the Elopichthys genus. Since it is a good predator, it has a nicked name called “water tiger”. The fish usually reaches maturity at the age of three to four years and the body weight around 10 kilograms and its body length and weight can continue to increase after maturity. In spite of this, the individual with the body length of 1.7 meters and the body weight over 50 kilograms is rare in the wild.  

Back to 20 days ago, a piece of news drew attention to MHBS that a giant yellow cheek carp had been caught by fishermen in Danjiangkou Reservoir and bought by a local fish dealer called Danjiangkou Qingfu Wild Fish Development Co., Ltd. Manager of the company said that it was the biggest yellow cheek carp he had ever seen over the past 30 years.  

MHBS Researchers tried to contact the dealer through local city governmental departments in Danjiangkou City and asked for collecting this fish for research and education. This request received positive feedback from Danjiangkou City Aquatic Service Center and the company soon. In fact, the company had already received lots of inquiries from business people of Hubei, Henan, and other places who wanted to offer a better price for this fish. However, the company decided to offer this fish to MHBS without profit. After careful freezing preservation and packaging, the fish was safely delivered to MHBS on the dawn of October 26th, 2019.  

With the history of 89 years, MHBS collects over 1000 species 300,000 specimens of freshwater fish and 100,000 specimens of other aquatic organisms, which is the largest collection of freshwater fish in Asia area. In recent years, thousands of new specimens have been collected by MHBS, among which the giant yellow cheek carp is rarely met.