Tench

THE POND CLEANER

So what about the Tench as an alternative to Koi or Goldfish. Why is the Tench sometimes referred to as the pond cleaner.

The Tench is a great fish and it lurks around the depths of a pond looking for food (the pond cleaner), so the good thing about having Tench in your pond is that any food that the other fish have not eaten will not have time to rot as the Tench will consume it. Tench also live well with other types of fish.  The colour of the Tench can vary but is a greenish colour but they have been bred to a lighter colour to a variety called the Golden Tench, their fins are a grey/blue in colour. Their eyes are dark red.

Tench in the wild prefer slow running or even still waters so this makes them ideal for a pond. They can survive quite cold conditions. They are said to live a long time and are supposed to be easy to keep. I have had Tench in the past and have never had any problems with them. These fish can grow quite big.

So the Tench sounds a nice fish, it can certainly look nice with its gold colour and dark fins, I think it is a great fish for a pond. It will help keep your pond clean, but if it spends most of its time at the bottom of the pond eating away at everything the other fish didn’t want then will you ever see them. I used to have a few Tench and they used to surface fairly regular, so I wouldn’t worry to much about not ever seeing them, its certainly not a reason to discard them as a worthy fish for any pond.

So its a personal choice of whether to consider Tench as a potential fish to add to your pond, they are a fish that is definitely worth checking out, but the final decision is all yours.