Anglers can only sigh at them.
As they make their graceful, sure and steady rises on the surface of ponds, lakes and rivers, anglers can only sigh longingly. Because cast as we might and bait as we will, our chances of getting them on rod and line are only a little better than winning the jackpot.
The bighead carp - Aristichthys nobilis - is easily recognisable because of its disproportionately large head, its incredibly large and thick mouth and its low-set eyes. Many would call it ugly. In Malaysian dining, the fish is generally known as “tai tau pok” or “soong yee”. However, it is not a popular eating fish as it is bony and its flesh tends to carry a pungent, muddy taste.
It has a tremendous growth rate and record sizes easily exceed the 50kg mark. In the Missouri River, the United States, it is reported that thousands of tons of bighead carps can be caught in area of less than half an acre on the river. Though it is not native to Malaysian freshwater, it has firmly entrenched its position as a part of the Malaysian freshwater fish population for well over a century.
The reason anglers seldom obtain the privilege of catching one of these impressive fish is because it is primarily a zooplankton and phytoplankton feeder almost throughout its lifespan. The fish swims up and down with its big mouth wide open nearly 24 hours a day, feeding on tonnes of plankton at various depths. In the process, it also consumes detritus, algae and bacteria.
A large population of bighead carps in an ex-mining lake is able to reduce the planktonic life of a lake so effectively as to render the lake’s water gin clear. By reducing microbiological life in the water, dissolved oxygen becomes more available to fish. The general fish population is also less prone to attacks by fungus and bacteria. Sunlight penetrates the clearer water more deeply, allowing for better ultraviolet light exposure that will further improve the quality of the water.
For many decades, eventhough bighead carps don’t fetch a good price in the market, freshwater fish farmers have learnt to include a goodly population of bighead carps in their fish ponds to control algae and other microbiological growth, thus lending to a better yield of the main fishes in their ponds.
In duck farms, bighead carps are important fishes in the duck ponds as they keep detritus and planktonic life in check. Duck pond waters are very high in nutrients, thanks to the ducks. Left to its own designs, the planktonic and microbiological life will explode to such a degree as to cause grave danger to the ducks. As such, most duck ponds in Perak (where duck farming is popular in ex-mining lakes) boast amazingly clear water in spite of years of duck breeding.
This fish, therefore, is a good microbiological control agent to introduce into our lakes and river systems.
Many lakes and ponds in housing estates, though pleasing to the eye, are actually harbours of pathogenic problems. Urban water features are inevitably high in nutrients that will breed a wide range of planktonic and microbial life, and some of them will threaten human well-being. Unsuspecting anglers fishing an urban pond may come into contact with the water carrying dangerous microbes. At the end of their angling session, they go home and bring the microbial problem with them.
I think the authorities should conduct a thorough study into putting this fish into our urban freshwater features. The fries are easily obtained though fish farms.
The flip side of this suggestion is that since the bighead carp can grow so impressively, they have no natural predators. Since they so rarely take a baited hook, they cannot even be naturally culled by angling. Therefore, they can grow to such size and numbers that they will eventually become a problem themselves by robbing other fishes of living and breeding space. It is thus necessary to cull them with nets when the situation arises. Although they don’t make good eating fish, it is good to remember that the fish effectively centres thousands of tonnes of otherwise useless biomass in the form of microbes and plankton and detritus into themselves. Humans may not like to eat them. But livestock will not mind. So it is highly possible that these bighead carps can be cooked and prepared as a valuable protein supplement for a large variety of other livestock. In addition, their protein content can be processed with special microbes and be converted into a high grade nitrogenous fertilizer for horticultural applications.
However, the above suggestion does not factor in the high probability that urban ponds contain unhealthy levels of heavy metals, which will pollute the big head carps and thus compromise their eligibility to provide proteinaceous supplements or nitrogenous fertilizer.
I wonder if there are actually scientists reading this discussion group, and urge them to take a closer look at turning organic freshwater pollution into an opportunity using this fish.
Murphy’s Three-fold Law:
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Nothing is ever as easy as it looks.
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Everything will take longer than you think it should.
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If anything can possibly go wrong, it will.
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Enjoy the fishing process… including fish borrowed for photoshot…
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