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Chinese black roach is a species of cyprinid freshwater fish and the sole extant species of the genus Mylopharyngodon. Black carp, together with bighead carp, silver carp, and grass carp, make up the culturally important “four famous domestic fishes” used in polyculture in China for over a thousand years. Black carp are elongated fish with a fusiform body. They appear dusky gray, brown or bluish black and have dark fins. Their dorsal fin is high and pointed. The black carp was first accidentally introduced into the United States during a grass carp shipment from Asia in the 1970s.

The black carp was later intentionally introduced to the US in the 1980s for use in retention ponds and aquaculture facilities to manage yellow grub and snails populations. It was also to be used as food fish. The nature of the black carp’s diet has led to its use in the United States in the control of snails in aquaculture. Snails are obligate alternate hosts of trematode pests that can cause substantial losses to aquaculture crops. Some state aquaculture laws require the carp to be bred as triploids, to render them sterile, thus minimizing the potential for the fish to escape and create self-sustaining populations.