The tench is a large, hardy olive green-coloured fish native to Europe. Found in lakes and rivers, its skin secretes a lot of slime. Also known as doctor fish, its slime is believed to have healing properties. The slime was once used on humans to treat wounds.
Tench prefer shallow lakes, rivers, and backwaters with a great deal of vegetation. In some parts of the world, they spend the winter buried in mud.
To find food, the tench uses short sensory organs that protrude from each side of its mouth, called barbels, to search the river or lake bottom for snails, mosquito larvae, and other small creatures. Tench also eat detritus, algae, and plant matter.
Male tench reach maturity at around two to three years old, females about a year later. That happens in late spring or summer when the female releases her eggs every 15 days or so until the temperature cools. She does this near plants so that the sticky eggs attach to the vegetation. One or two males will swim by and release sperm. Once the eggs hatch, the larvae stay attached to the plants for several days before swimming off.
In Europe, tench are threatened by the alteration of waterways and other kinds of river engineering.
Credit : National Geographic
Picture Credit : Google
