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[RedKing]

Not merely the tagline for a bad B-movie, it's now my cardinal rule when embarking on riverine maps.

I had found an embark spot with a confluence of rivers which carved up the map nicely and thought, "Hey...I could build a nice defensive fort using the rivers as a natural moat."

When I got there, I was wowed by the unit list...three pages of nothing but longnose gar, sturgeons, pikes and sea lampreys. "No biggie", I think. "At least there aren't any carp. Those should should be pretty docile. I'll just fish around the edges near the fort."

And so things went smoothly for the first year. And then suddenly, my Adept Miner cancels a task due to dangerous terrain. ??! Oh crap...he fell in the water. Wait, no...he's fighting a sea lamprey. Ok, he killed it. He's close to the bank, I can have him carve a ramp out! Hmm...it almost looks like those other fish are swarming him...Oh. My. God.

Chunks everywhere. A minute or two later, another lamprey pulls in my fisherman and rips his arm off. Then my carpenter gets pulled in by a longnose gar while he was just walking by with an armload of wood. He crawls for the shore, and then the gar knocks him back eight tiles. Underwater.

By this point, the rivers are pretty much red, and the survivors are seriously thinking about building a wagon to get the hell out of Coilrivers.

[bmaczero]

Maps with carp.  First priorities:
1.) Turn off all fishing labors.
2.) Mark any tile within two tiles of the river as a restricted traffic area.

I have never had problems with carp.

He crawls for the shore, and then the gar knocks him back eight tiles. Underwater.

Okay, wow.

Sacrifice the rest of your fort to it to give it a name .

[RedKing]

That's just it...there weren't any carp. I've heard all these stories about how carp are the wrath of Armok incarnate, but haven't ever run into them. Apparently all the large fish might as well be pirahnas.

And there's already two named fish. The one that got my carpenter (and used the Flying Fish-Fu Fist of Death on him) was named (appropriately) "Dieclinch".

[Ringmaster]

I think I made fish too hardcore

(Bold added for emphasis)

Carp have gained the reputation. But its all fish that are like this.

[o_O[WTFace]]

Things seem slightly less agressive for the first season or two.  On river maps priority 1 is to get a wall between us and them.  Also, turn the activity zone orders to zone only drinking.  Sometimes bored college dorfs like to experiment with water because of the way it makes them giggle and stumble around all dizzy like.  The fish trick them into jumping into the water and they overdose and die, or get eaten alive. 

[NW_Kohaku]

Technically, carp are actually fairly weak fish... that's part of why they're such a surprise - you'd think they're weak, but they're cold-blooded killers.

Carp are only size 3, which is basically like fighting a cat who just happens to be in the water.  Longnose Gar are size 5, which is more like a wolf.  Hence, Longnose Gar are more dangerous in straight combat stats.

Thing is, you'd actually expect gar to be a little... well, more GAR than a carp, so they don't have the same reputation for surprising people.

[Loyal]

All of the riverfish are equally dangerous unless you take steps to deal with them beforehand. Digging ramps along the riverside (scare the fish away from each rampsite with a marksdwarf or something before you dig), building long bridges, maybe with walls, and so on. Also, set traffic zones such that your dwarves won't go near the river's edge while travelling near it.

The fish don't NEED to rip a dwarf limb from limb, they just need to pull the poor bastard into the water. The chunks and the blood are just for effect.

[The_Kakaze]

I just had an embark where the only murky pool with carp was 2 tiles from my wagon.  As soon as I unpaused the game, my leader/hunter dwarf was dragged to his death.  I didn't realize what had happened till the pond filled with blood.  I drafted the rest of my dwarves, and sent them to attack the watery menace.  They all died in the attempt.

[NW_Kohaku]

I just had an embark where the only murky pool with carp was 2 tiles from my wagon.  As soon as I unpaused the game, my leader/hunter dwarf was dragged to his death.  I didn't realize what had happened till the pond filled with blood.  I drafted the rest of my dwarves, and sent them to attack the watery menace.  They all died in the attempt.

Embark to Fun: 2 seconds.  New record.

[Blackburn]

Isn't a sea lamprey a leech or something?

How does a leech rip off someone's arm?

(Damn, no one will beat that record. Two seconds...? Only way you could beat it is if the wagon and dwarves spawned twenty levels above ground and fell to their deaths...)

[Nobbins]

I just had an embark where the only murky pool with carp was 2 tiles from my wagon.  As soon as I unpaused the game, my leader/hunter dwarf was dragged to his death.  I didn't realize what had happened till the pond filled with blood.  I drafted the rest of my dwarves, and sent them to attack the watery menace.  They all died in the attempt.

Quite the accomplishment.

Anyways, they're easy as pit in Adventure mode, if you have swimming. I think this is more of a dwarven AI issue then a real "FISH ARE FUCKING INTENSE" issue. The later is still true, and you do need to train your dwarves in swimming, but...

[PhilbertFlange]

How does a leech rip off someone's arm?

Well I know they have no bones, and will often tie themselves in knots to give themselve pulling power as they rasp away chunks of flesh leaving wound like the pic below. They'll even tie themselves around the bones of whale carcases as they pull at the flesh nearby.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Blackburn]

How does a leech rip off someone's arm?

Well I know they have no bones, and will often tie themselves in knots to give themselve pulling power as they rasp away chunks of flesh leaving wound like the pic below. They'll even tie themselves around the bones of whale carcases as they pull at the flesh nearby.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I was not aware that my crippling fear of the ocean could get any worse.

Thank you for revealing to me that yes, I could be more terrified of the terrain that covers two-thirds of our planet.

[The_Rabbit]

Generally speaking I haven't had the carp issues, though I'm pretty quick on the draw getting some proficient crossbowmen and putting the fear o' god into the fish. Last fort though, for some reason no matter what I did there were 3 dwarves that insisted on recovering a steel bolt that had fallen to the bottom of the river. I didn't notice they were dying till the whole river was red...

[Lord Dakoth]

I once embarked on a region with carp and harpies. The water was red six months out of twelve from the epic duels between the creatures.