Tench 12-19cm

Please note that we do not ship fish by mail. All fish must be collected from us in Oberweningen. We will professionally package the fish for you and ensure sufficient oxygen enrichment. This allows even longer transports to be handled without problems. Our staff will also be happy to inform you about transport and the correct placement of the fish in your pond.

Origin and Appearance
The tench, also called Schleie or Schuster, is a native fish and belongs to the carp family. With a few exceptions, they are found throughout Europe and prefer slow-flowing or still waters. There, they prefer to stay near reed belts, water lily fields or heavily overgrown areas, where they primarily search for food on the bottom.

Tench are olive-green, their belly is yellowish to white. Their thick skin is slimy and covered with small scales. The mucous membrane has antibacterial and antifungal effects. The terminal mouth is thick-lipped, protractile and, like the carp, has two barbels. Another typical feature is their strikingly large dorsal fin. Tench grow 20 - 70 cm long, can weigh up to 7 kg and live to be 35 years old.

They are also considered an excellent edible fish and are tastier than the more well-known carp. Their flesh is firm, low in bones and fat.

Care and Feeding
Tench feed primarily on microorganisms or also snails and plants. In the home garden pond, we feed tench with sinking pellets, as the fish prefer to take their food from the bottom. The light-shy tench are rather cautious when searching for and taking food and prefer the night or the early morning hours. The tench has no teeth in its jaw, but like the carp, it has so-called pharyngeal teeth located far back, with which it can crush the food it has taken in.

Tench are very robust and adaptable fish that can temporarily fall into a cold or heat torpor. Therefore, they can temporarily cope with very little oxygen. In smaller bodies of water such as village ponds or overgrown forest ponds, they are sometimes even the only fish species present thanks to this ability. Thanks to their peaceful nature, tench can be easily socialized with other carp-like pond fish.

The spawning season for tench takes place between April and June, depending on the water temperature. They need 18 - 20 degrees for successful reproduction. During this time, the females lay up to 300,000 eggs on aquatic plants, where they are then fertilized by the males. The female does not lay all the eggs at once; the spawning season can extend over 2 months. The sex of the tench can be determined by their pectoral fins. Males have large, spoon-shaped fins, while females have longer and more pointed, rather triangular-looking fins.

Good water values are a prerequisite for keeping tench, so a filter system and oxygen enrichment are essential for the well-being of the animals.

Water Temperatures and Wintering
Tench are native coldwater fish and can cope with a wide variety of conditions. They can tolerate temperatures between 4 - 28 °C well. Wintering in our domestic garden ponds is therefore not a problem.