The roots of aquaculture trace back 4,000 years to China where carpwere cultured, and before that to Egypt where early pictorial depictions dating to 2500 B.C.E. show tilapiabeing fished out of a tank. The earliest known written record of fish culture techniques is attributed to Fan Li, of China, who in 475 B.C.E. described propagation methods, pond construction, and growth characteristics of common carp.
From those early beginnings to the present, common carp is the best understood of all aquaculture species. Common carp reportedly were grown in Europe 2,000 years ago, and, although the ancient Greeks and Romans held fish in ponds, more advanced techniques for breeding and growing fish in managed environments in Europe were first devised 1,000 years ago.
The Japanese, Polynesian Hawaiians, and Mayans were also early practitioners of fish culture. In the United States, nineteenth-century scientists developed techniques for breeding rainbow troutin captivity. Rainbow trout have since been transplanted from their native Western U.S. streams to many countries in Europe, Africa, and South and Central America.