| This species was first brought into a private fish farm in Arkansas from Asia in the early 1970s as a "contaminant" in imported grass carp stocks. Provides a cheap means of controlling trematodes in catfish ponds but poses a risk for the mollusks in the Mississippi Basin with 90% of native mussels listed as endangered. In 2000, fishing groups petitioned to list it as an "injurious" (Ref. 74657). A triploid carp (likely sterile) was caught in Horseshoe Lake, Alexander County, Illinois 26 March 2003. Capture of the specimen is evidence that the species is escaping or being released from aquaculture and/or research facilities. With the introduction history of Asian carp, it appears inevitable that black carp will become established in the Mississippi river and elsewhere unless stricter regulations on the use and transportation of this species are developed and enforced. Numerous captures in the Mississippi basin are reported by Ref. 55930; whether they are reproducing in the wild is not known with certainty. Rarely found but thought to be reproducing and increasing in the lower Mississippi River basin. Occurs in floodplain lakes, backwaters, and channels of large rivers (Ref. 86798). Also Ref. 47937.
Ref:
Nico, L.G., J.D. Williams and H.L. Jelks, 2005
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