Giant Carp ranks among the largest freshwater fish that has scales in the world and is the largest fish in the family Cyprinidae. Its body is quite round and the side of body is flat. Its body is grey-pink in color. Its back is brown-black. The side of body and belly have more tint color. Its special characteristic is that its head is rather long and large for the body. Its head is complanate, shine and has no scales. The length of its head is about one-third of the body. The eyes are big and protrusive. The lower lip is thick and juts out over the upper lip. It has wide mouth and the jaw is long to the eye area. It has a row of teeth on each side of pharynx. There are no barbels. It has big scales with smooth edge. Dorsal fin is high and on the same position with ventral fin. It has quite long anal fin and jagged edge caudal fin. Every fins is red-orange in color. Male giant carp has rather small and slender body with flat belly and dark in color than female giant carp.
In Thailand, it used to be found plentiful in river basins from Mekong River, Chao Phraya River to Borraped Swamp. Presently, its numbers have declined seriously. However, it still can be found in Klong Canal. People around that area call Giant Carp as Pra-Ka-Mun or Hua-Mun.
It eats plankton and aquatic plants.
It likes to stay peacefully and it is easily to be frightened. It likes to stay as a group in deep water. It is patient and strong fish.
