Oujiang color common carp (Cyprinus carpio var.color) has two kinds of scales, the soft scale and the hard scale.Nutritive components of these two types of scales were compared in this study.The results indicated that the moisture content of the soft scale (54.94%) was higher than that of the hard scale (46.67%),P<0.05.The dry weight of crude protein, crude ash and crude fat in the soft scales were 79.84%, 17.18% and 2.09%, respectively, whereas these measurements in the hard scales were 82.57%, 14.84% and 2.06%, respectively.There were significant differences (P<0.05) between the soft and hard scales except for the crude fat.In total, sixteen different kinds of amino acids were determined in the scales.The dry weight concentration of all amino acids in the soft scales was lower than that in the hard scales except for lysine.In addition, the content of essential amino acids in the hard scales was higher than that in the soft scales (P<0.05).Based on the results of the comparison, we concluded that the degree of hardness and softness of fish scales of the Oujiang color common carp could be influenced by the content of moisture, the proportion of crude protein and crude ash in the scales.