Hypophthalmichthys is a genus of cyprinid

Cyprinid

The family Cyprinidae, from the Ancient Greek kyprînos , consists of the carps, the true minnows, and their relatives . Commonly called the carp family or the minnow family, its members are also known as cyprinids...

 fish

Fish

Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...

 consisting of three species. The name comes from Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

 , (hypó) "below"; (ophthalmós), "eye"; (ichthŷs), "fish", thus "fish with eyes below", referring to the fact that the fish has its eyes below the mouth line.

They are also known as bighead carp

Carp

Carp are various species of oily freshwater fish of the family Cyprinidae, a very large group of fish native to Europe and Asia. The cypriniformes are traditionally grouped with the Characiformes, Siluriformes and Gymnotiformes to create the superorder Ostariophysi, since these groups have certain...

, though that term is also locally used for individual species, particularly Hypophthalmichthys nobilis.

Species

• Hypophthalmichthys harmandi
  Hypophthalmichthys harmandi
  Hypophthalmichthys harmandi is a carp in genus Hypophthalmichthys....
  
  Sauvage
  Henri Émile Sauvage
  - Works :Articles in The Popular Science Monthly:* “Amphibious Fishes,” in Popular Science Monthly Volume 9, September 1876* “The Archer-Fishes,” in Popular Science Monthly Volume 12, January 1878* “The Matamata,” in Popular Science Monthly Volume 16, March 1880...
  
  , 1884
• Hypophthalmichthys molitrix (Valenciennes
  Achille Valenciennes
  Achille Valenciennes was a French zoologist.Valenciennes was born in Paris, and studied under Georges Cuvier. Valenciennes' study of parasitic worms in humans made an important contribution to the study of parasitology...
  
  , 1844) (silver carp)
• Hypophthalmichthys nobilis (J. Richardson
  John Richardson (naturalist)
  Sir John Richardson was a Scottish naval surgeon, naturalist and arctic explorer.Richardson was born at Dumfries. He studied medicine at Edinburgh University, and became a surgeon in the navy in 1807. He traveled with John Franklin in search of the Northwest Passage on the Coppermine Expedition of...
  
  , 1845) (bighead carp)