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The internet was deeply unsettled after a video went viral on social media showing a fish with a human face on its head. The video was taken by tourists in Kumming, China who were shocked when the fish emerged from the lake and looked at them with what appeared to be human eyes.
The fish appears to have human features on its head including a mouth, nose, and eyes. Users on social media were disturbed by the video and many wondered if it was made with CGI. “Are You Serious? This Fish Is Demonic” Said one user on Twitter. “I don’t want to see a carp or any fish, for that matter, WITH A HUMAN FACE.” Wrote another.
The video first started circulating on Douyin, the Chinese version of the mobile app TikTok, and continued to spread on the Chinese social network Weibo.
The humanoid fish is confirmed to be real and has been identified as a carp by USA Today and it’s been spotted in Asia before, specifically in South Korea.
According to an article by Telegraph in 2009, these humanoid carp were spotted in the town of Chongju, South Korea by a 64-year old South Korean man who says they’ve been there since 1986 and grow to be about 3 ft. long. The photos of the fish were taken by the local South Korea newspaper and later posted to the internet. “My fish have been getting more and more human for the past couple of years,” the pond owner said.
The fish are known as “ghost carp” and hybrid descendants of two carp species: the carp and the leather carp, which is also known as a tangerine fish.
The South Korean farmer added that “he knows of other fish with similar features, and as they are both females it will be impossible for them to breed and have fish-faced offspring.”
Videos and photos of the humanoid carp from South Korea went viral back in 2011 as evidenced by several video clips including this one from The Young Turks.
In 2009 we only had photos, but now we have videos of the fish. You can watch footage of the fish below:
The markings on the fish in the video look much more human than the South Korea carp found back in 2009.
The Humanoid Carp Was Spotted Earlier This Year
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Carp with a human face in Japan.
These carp have been spotted twice in 2019 before the latest video went viral. Ifeng News reported in April 2019 that a fish with a human face was spotted in a pond outside of a local temple in Tsuruoka City, Yamagata Prefecture, Japan.
While the carp photos appear to be legitimate, there was a fake CGI video posted from Japan that shows a fish with a humanoid face that just a little too real. The video got a lot of attention on Facebook before it was discovered that it had been doctored.
Carp
It Was Valued at $40,000 in 2010
44-year-old former butcher Brendan O’Sullivan accidentally bought a ghost carp back in 2010 and brought it home before he noticed the human-looking mouth, nose, and eyes on its head.
“It was astonishing. I could easily make out from the markings two eyes, a nose and a mouth. I thought I was suffering from sunstroke.” O’Sullivan told The Daily Mail back in 2010.
The Daily Mail said the extremely rare fish was worth an estimated £40,000 at the time.
Social Media Reacts to the Human Faced Carp
The fish with the human face on its head had social media equally parts horrified and fascinated. Users were comparing the fish to the Dreamcast game “Seaman” whose main character is a human/fish hybrid that bears a striking resemblance to the carp.
Some users replied with more hilarious comparisons of the fish while others were terrified that it exists.
While the video is strange and looks doctored, the fish is in fact real.
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