Tench
Tinca tinca
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Olive-green, thick-set and red-eyed, with fins so rounded they look padded.
A powerfully built fish with a deep olive-green to bronze colour, very small scales set in thick skin, distinctly rounded fins, small red eyes and a barbel at each corner of the mouth. Males have noticeably thickened, spoon-shaped pelvic fins. Tench live in weedy, silty, still waters — ponds, lochs and old canals — and are seldom found in flowing rivers.
Behaviour
Tench root about in soft bottoms for bloodworm, snails and insect larvae, sending up fine needle-like bubbles that give away their presence. They tolerate very low oxygen levels that would kill most fish and can survive in weedy, stagnant water. Through the coldest months they become almost completely inactive, lying in the silt and feeding hardly at all, and spawn late, in warm summer water.
When to see it
Quick facts
- Family
- Carps and minnows (Cyprinidae)
- Size
- Commonly 25–45 cm
- UK status
- Widespread in still waters; introduced to much of Scotland
Photo by Mattia Nocciola, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons