An edible Eurasian freshwater fish (Tinca tinca) having small scales and two barbels near the mouth.
[Middle English tenche, from Old French, from Late Latin tinca, probably of Celtic origin.]
tench
Dictionary:
tench (tĕnch)  |
n., pl., tench, or tench·es.
An edible Eurasian freshwater fish (Tinca tinca) having small scales and two barbels near the mouth.
An edible Eurasian freshwater fish (Tinca tinca) having small scales and two barbels near the mouth.
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| Animal Encyclopedia: Tench |
Tinca tinca
FAMILY
Cyprinidae
TAXONOMY
Cyprinus tinca Linnaeus, 1758, European lakes.
OTHER COMMON NAMES
French: Aiguillons, tanche; German: Alia.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Size moderate, normally 11.8 in (30 cm) in length, and rarely exceeding 23.6 (60 cm), and 3.97 lbs (1.8 kg) in weight; maximum age 14 years. Body robust, slightly compressed. Snout somewhat blunt. Mouth moderate, terminal, and oblique, with thick lips. Barbels 1 pair, very short. Pharyngeal teeth compressed, in 1 row. Gill rakers short, 12–14. Dorsal fin short, with 3 unbranched, 8 branched rays; anal fin with 3 unbranched, 7 branched rays. Scales small. Lateral line complete, with 100–105 scales. The caudal peduncle is characteristically deep and short. Skin thick and very slimy. Olive green above, dark green or almost black, with golden reflections, on ventral surface; the fins are always dark; eyes orange-red.
DISTRIBUTION
Eurasia, found throughout Europe to northwestern China.
HABITAT
Warm lakes and pools with weed and mud bottoms. It can tolerate low oxygen levels. In winter, this fish stays in the mud without feeding itself.
BEHAVIOR
Tench have limited home range. They are mostly solitary, occasionally occurring in small groups.
FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET
Omnivorous. Feeds on bottom invertebrates and aquatic insect larvae. Young tench also feed on algae. Foraging is often active at dawn and dusk.
REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY
Matures in 3–5 years. Breeds in shallow water among dense vegetation, laying numerous sticky green eggs in the period from May to August. After hatching, the larvae remain attached to plants for several days. The fecundity is 300,000–400,000 eggs per kilogram of body weight.
CONSERVATION STATUS
Not listed by IUCN.
SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS
Because its flesh is highly esteemed, the tench has considerable value, although it grows very slow. A golden color variety is a popular ornamental pond fish.
| WordNet: tench |
Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.
The noun has one meaning:
Meaning #1:
freshwater dace-like game fish of Europe and western Asia noted for ability to survive outside water
Synonym: Tinca tinca
| Wikipedia: Tench |
For other uses, see Tench (disambiguation).
| Tench | |
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| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Cypriniformes |
| Family: | Cyprinidae |
| Genus: | Tinca Cuvier, 1816 |
| Species: | T. tinca |
| Binomial name | |
| Tinca tinca (Linnaeus, 1758) |
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The tench or doctor fish (Tinca tinca) is a freshwater and brackish water fish of the cyprinid (commonly called 'carp') family found throughout Eurasia from Western Europe including the British Isles east into Asia as far as the Ob and Yenisei Rivers. It is also found in Lake Baikal.[1] It normally inhabits slow-moving freshwater habitats, particularly lakes and lowland rivers.[2]
Contents |
Ecology
The tench is most often found in still waters with a clay or muddy substrate and abundant vegetation.[3] This species is rare in clear waters across stony ground, and is absent altogether from fast-flowing streams. It tolerates water with a low oxygen concentration,[1] even being found in waters where the carp cannot survive.[3]
Tench feed mostly at night on algae and benthic invertebrates of various kinds that they root up from the bottom.[3]
Breeding takes place in shallow water usually among aquatic plants where the sticky green eggs can be deposited.[1] Spawning usually occurs in summer,[2] and as many as three hundred thousand eggs may be produced.[4] Growth is rapid, and fish may reach a weight of 0.11 kg (0.25 lb) within the first year.
Morphology
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Tench have a stocky, carp-like shape, olive-green skin, darker above and almost golden below. The caudal fin is square in shape. The other fins are distinctly rounded in shape.[3] The mouth is rather narrow and provided at each corner with a very small barbel. Maximum size is 70 cm, though most specimens are very much smaller.[5] The eyes are small and red-orange in colour.[1] Sexual dimorphism is weak, limited to the adult females having a more convex ventral profile when compared with males.[5] Males may also possess a very thick and flattened outer ray to the ventral fins.[citation needed]
The tench has very small scales, which are deeply imbedded in a thick skin, making it as slippery as an eel. Folklore has it that this slime cured any sick fish that rubbed against it, and from this belief arose the name doctor fish.[4]
Golden tench
An artificially-bred variety of tench called the golden tench or schlei is a popular ornamental fish for ponds. This form varies in colour from pale gold through to red, and some fish have black or red spots on the flanks and fins. Though somewhat similar to the goldfish, because these fish have such small scales, the golden quality is rather different.[4] This variety is said to have been originally bred in Silesia.[citation needed]
Economic significance
Tench are edible and considered to have a fine flavour, working well in recipes that would otherwise call for carp.[3] They are an important target for coarse anglers and are also used as fodder for predatory species such as bass.[1] Tench, particularly golden tench, are also kept as ornamental fish in ponds and less frequently aquaria.[6]
Angling
Large tench may be found in gravel pits or deep, slow-moving waters with a clayey or silty bottom and lots of aquatic vegetation. They take a variety of baits but are "nibblers" and are difficult to hook. Fish over 1 kg (2 lb) in weight are very strong fighters when caught on a rod.[4]
References
- ^ a b c d e "Tinca tinca". FishBase. Ed. Ranier Froese and Daniel Pauly. 5 2007 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2007.
- ^ a b B. Whitton (1982). Rivers, Lakes and Marshes p 163. Hodder & Staughton, London.
- ^ a b c d e A. F. Magri MacMahon (1946). Fishlore, pp 156-158. Pelican Books.
- ^ a b c d A. Lawrence Wells (date unknown). Observer Book of Freshwater Fishes, pp 101-105. Frederick Warne & Co.
- ^ a b G. Sterba (1962). Freshwater Fishes of the World pp 249-250. Vista Books, London.
- ^ Dick Mills (2000). Understanding Coldwater Fish, p 106. Interpet Publishing. ISBN 1-9030-9810-6
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| Translations: Tench |
Dansk (Danish)
n. - (zoo.) suder
Nederlands (Dutch)
zeelt (vis)
Deutsch (German)
n. - (zo.) Schleie
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (ιχθυολ.) τίγγα
Português (Portuguese)
n. - tenca (Ictiol.)
Русский (Russian)
(зоол.) линь
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - sutare (fisk)
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
鲤鱼类淡水鱼
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 鯉魚類淡水魚
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) سمك نهري أوروبي, التنش
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - סוג של קרפיון
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Copyrights:
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Animal Encyclopedia. Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Copyright © 2005 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Tench". Read more |
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