lateral lines on wild/feral carp

[Loop Erimder]

Lovely fish indeed

[Dave Burr]

Australian carp always look like that

Seriously, I have never particularly noticed the lateral line on commons or wildies looking any different but now I have to go back through some old pictures and find out. So Smallscale, you are the reason I won't be getting much done today Unless the lady of the house see's what I'm up to

[Snape]

Lovely carp Smallscale.
I removed the duplicate and flipped the photo over.

[Gary Bills]

Most interesting Smallscale...I too had never thought of this. The long, slightly curving snouts remind me of the pics of the Hunstrete wildies, caught by the CCC in the 1950s - quite different to the chub-like Sasan fish, with rounded snouts, which are the wildies of the Black Sea tributaries. This may mean that there are several "races" or strains of wild carp, not just one, much as there different sorts of tiger etc in the wild. Why not?
I've been flipping through my own pics of carp with "feral" characteristics, - and some show the lateral line, faintly, but others do not, and flipping through Kevin Clifford's brilliant "A History of Carp Fishing Revisted" - and some illustrations and pics of wildies show the lateral, or seem to, and others do not - so it many be down to strain and the gene pool, - I don't know. It's certainly got me thinking.

[Mark]

Oi Dave! You want to be careful calling South Africans; "Australians".

We make allowances for him Smallscale.

[Dave Burr]

It was only because your fish was upside down Smallscale- I may be thick but my geography isn't quite that bad

[Gary Bills]

I've noticed lately on some feral carp over here that the lateral line is clearly distinguishable. From photos I've taken it would appear that this is unique to the long and dark fish only. Anyone else notice this? Could this be a VDM(visual distinguishing mark) common to all wild/feral carp? Does anyone else have pictures corroborating this theory?

Ive had a rummage again in my pics, - and I 'found this image of a baby king - certainly a king, with a hump like that, and with an unusually clear lateral line on a pretty, light, unusually silvery carp- so I'd say it's a general and occasional carp trait, rather that a strain signifyer, - but I'd like to be proven wrong...

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[Dave Burr]

I got that. But the warning stands.

Okay Cobber

[Kingfisher]

Smallscale, I come in for a spot of lunch and now end up looking through my pics. You're right though, I've just looked at one of my wild carp from the summer and seen the lateral line....I'd never really noticed it before.



Right off to eat something.

[Kingfisher]

Now that's what a carp is supposed to look like.!

Right little scrappers and bars of gold too.