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Interesting animal species
The common carp Cyprinus carpio
The carp inhabits standing and running fresh waters. It feeds digging in the bottoms of basins in search of food. The original area where this species comes from is the catchment area of the Black and Caspian Seas, the Aral Sea, and also Asia Minor and eastern China. Nowadays it has been introduced into inland waters of Europe, Asia, Australia and both Americas, where it is a cultured fish.
For the first time the species was domesticated in China in the 5th c. BC. In Poland carp husbandry dates back to at least mid 12th c. The earliest mentions of carp in the O¶więcim-Zator Region date from the 13th c. The carp culturing centre situated here has been one of the most important of its kind in Poland since the Middle Ages. The flavour value of the Zator carp was appreciated by Polish kings, who were importing it onto their tables for years. In 1508 the Principalities of O¶więcim and Zator supplied the court of Sigismund I the Old with several dozen tonnes of the fish. The watercourses supplying water to the ponds were then a subject of many wrangles. In 1513, in a feud over water supplying ponds in Laskowa, Wawrzyniec Myszkowski, the castellan of O¶więcim, killed Prince of Zator, Janusz. As a result of this murder, the Principality of Zator was incorporated into Poland. The second part of the 19th century witnessed a sudden development of pond industry. A significant event was the introduction of a transfer system of carp culture. All fish born in a given year were placed in ("transferred" to) separate ponds, which shortened the period of breeding consumption carp from 6-7 to 3 years, thus increasing the profitability of culture. The method was discovered by Tomasz Dubisz, of Slovakian descent, a master fisher in the Habsburg lands, which now belong to the Experimental Unit of Pond Industry of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Gołysz. Carps cultured by Adolf Gasch from Kaniów near Czechowice gained fame at the Berlin agricultural exhibition in 1880. Since then they have been called Galician carps - from the German name: "galizische Karpfen-Race"). The fish began to be cultured in most Polish and European carp ponds. In 1933 a Zator farm set up the first company shop in Krakow in Dietl Street. Live fish were then delivered by lorry, in tarpaulin tanks. At present several carp breed lines - the Zator line among them - are cultured in the local ponds.
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