Comments on: Japanese Giant Fish, Part 1- The Namitarou

By: PhotoExpert

PhotoExpert — Mon, 31 May 2010 04:11:21 +0000

This story interests me on two levels. I am both an avid fisherman and avid cryptophile.

When I saw that photo of the fish, I immediately thought carp! But based on the estimates, that would have to be one giant carp!

Keep up posted. Hopefully, some new photos will turn up where we can make a more accurate guess as to the identity of the fish!

Mystery_man, how have you been? Greeeaaaat to see you here posting at Cryptomundo!

By: Sordes

Sordes — Sun, 30 May 2010 16:29:22 +0000

Besides the gras carp and the silver carp there are also two other very large asian “carps” (actually they are no carps at all), the black carp (Mylopharyngodon piceus and the bighead carp (Hypophthalmichthys nobilis). They are both closely related to the silver carp and gras carp, but have different ecological niches. The first one feeds mainly on mollusks and the second one on zooplankton (and small fish to some degree). Both grow very large, surpassing silver and gras carp in size. The black carp is comparably long-bodied and can probably reach the highest total length, but possibly not the weight of the largest bighead carps. All of this species were not native to Japan, but are introduced in some areas.

The giant siamese carp is without doubt a really huge freshwater fish, but the often quoted dates about its maximum sizes are highly dubious. They are only based on very old anecdotal information, and there is no confirmed record of any giant siamese carp only close to 3 m and 300 kg.

As usual for anecdotal claims of massive sizes the size-weight-relation is absolutely out of proportion. The siamese carp is an extremely stocky. If I take for example a large specimen of 117 cm total length and 45 kg weight, I come with this dimensions to around 750 kg for a hypothetical 3 m specimen…

A siamese carp would already be around 300 kg at roughly 2,2 m, and we don´t even know if the claimed maximum weight is nothing but a big fish story.

By: E

Sun, 30 May 2010 08:50:22 +0000

Now this is interesting. Though it is used for more of a tourist attraction, as always, but it’s at least a more probable cryptid explanation so far. Don’t know too much about carps, but here’s the chance to find out! =)