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Worldwide attention has been focused on two female "humanoid" carps with human faces, considered a hybrid descendant of two different species of carps—the tangerine/leather carp and the common carp. Absolutely fascinating, a 64-year old man from Chongju, South Korea, has had them in his back-yard pond since 1986. He is quoted as saying that over the past 23 years, they have become more and more human in their features with human noses, lips and forward-facing eyes. At a length of more than three feet, they look like a long fish with a human head---almost as if they were slowly evolving into humans.

With centrally-located Chongju considered "carp central", humanoid features on a fish are definitely not a new thing. This Japanese carp is called a "Human-Faced Fish" or the hybrid of a "koi" fish. Bred in both Korea and Japan for collectors through selective breeding by humans, it is popular with collectors all over the world who desire it for its unique properties while being known as a symbol of family life.  But human fish is a term that covers a wide area, such as the proteus anguinus or human fish in Slovenian Karst.

The "proteus anguinus" is also referred to as a human fish—not because it looks like a human but because its pale skin contains no protective pigment and has a similar color to that of a human. Whitish with a pink hue, it completely adapts to eternal subterranean darkness in deep underground caves, and are about 25 to 30 cm long which has made it the longest cave animal in the world and the only adapted vertebrate in Europe.  Containing both gills and rudimentary lunges, it stays in water for its entire life. Looking like a long worm with a small elongated head, its eyes can be seen only during its early stages but later on they will be grown over with skin.

With a limited location, this long human fish survives in the subterranean fresh water of the Dinaric Alps along the Adriatic Sea. Preferring constant low temperatures and calm, well-oxygenated water, the human fish was first discovered in the Slovenian Karst with the majority of its researches found in the territory of Slovenian. Another type, the "proteus anguinus parkelj" or black human fish, is found only in Bela Krajina, southeast Slovenia. It has eyes that are more developed than the "proteus anguinus" and a well-developed pigment. It receives its black color from the sun exposure it receives when it searches for food when coming up.

For some reason, these types of human fish have grown into a profitable business in the 19th and 20th centuries, with its main problems consisting of industrial population, tourism and economic changes. Its massive population declines are due to pesticides, over-harvesting of the pet trade, collection levels, habitat loss, alterations of its locality, toxins, pollutants, and fertilizers.