GOLDEN TENCH,ANYONE HAVE THEM PLEASE?

[silverghost]

I happend along a Canadian website on Koi and ponds etc.They were all moaning about the muck in the bottom of their ponds - some had drains,some used vacs.One letter stood out from a lady who had a 2-3000 gallon liner pond.She said that she always kept 2 tench with Koi and goldfish in her pond and the bottom was so clear she could still read the makers name etc on the bottom of her pond after 4 years.She said the tench were always busy,clearing the bottom, as if it was their job in life.
I want to know has anyone else tried a Tench,and what were the results?...I am very tempted to buy a golden Tench in the Spring as you cannot see the black ones.Sorry if this post is in the wrong bay .Thankyou for hopeful replies.

[eds]

I have tench in my pond but they do no more rooting around on the bottom of the pond that Koi. In fact koi are probably more persistent at it than the tench. This is a complete myth like the one that catfish keep the bottom of your fishtank clean! They need proper food like any other fish.

[dazzafjr1300]

i have a good size albino cat fish that does no more than the koi but i think my sturgeon moves the bottom surface about more as it hugs the bottom and it has a irregular body movment i have noticed the bottom muck moves a little more were it is and this gives the pump a chance to get it to filter but in the summer you have to watch any blanket weed as sturgeon dont like it i would say it makes a better fish than a tench more interesting

[silverghost]

Interesting stuff! Tell me Ed do you keep the wild dark Tench or the Golden ones? I wonder if it is the greeny dark ones that clear up,as perhaps the refined golden may have had the "bottom feeding instinct" bred out of them...This defintely happens in dogs bred for show and dogs bred for gamework.They both may look similar but the show dog is no good for what it was originally intended to be,if you get my analogy that is.
Dazz if I saw a sturgeon in my pond hurtling around I would be too terrified to tend it, you must have got nerves of steel !

[Andy H]

I have 2 golden orfe that sometimes come up and grab for food and mostly miss it and spend most time on the bottom. 3 very large grass carp that come up about twice in summer for a pellet if no-one is near the pond so they must be eating something as they are big. So I am not really sure what they live on?
Bottom is fairly clean.

[eds]

I've got both types and they're lovely fish - my favourites from my angling days - but neither particularly grub about on the bottom. I don't think any instinct has been bred out of them at all. Tench feed by picking food off them bottom and digging lightly, whereas carp really attack the bottom. That's why wild fishing ponds with tench but no common carp in them often have clear water, but stick a load of carp in and the water will be muddy in no time!

I got a load of carp (from a certified fish farm) for a friend who has a dammed stream forming a pond which fills up with soil really quickly - the carp did a great job of digging in the mud and stopping it filling up.

If your carp don't dig around on the bottom just get some small sinking pellets in the summer and the carp will root all over the bottom looking for them and help shift any debris (though you really shouldn't have any debris there at all and would be better fitting a bottom drain, or a solids handling pump to get all the waste into a filter).

[dazzafjr1300]

its only about 12 inches long as soon as its to big then i know a very quite lake thats not fished as my mate owns it so it will have a good home wene its about 2 feet long then i will get a small one again ,they dont move fast but the fish moves all over moving the much near the pump

Interesting stuff! Tell me Ed do you keep the wild dark Tench or the Golden ones? I wonder if it is the greeny dark ones that clear up,as perhaps the refined golden may have had the "bottom feeding instinct" bred out of them...This defintely happens in dogs bred for show and dogs bred for gamework.They both may look similar but the show dog is no good for what it was originally intended to be,if you get my analogy that is.
Dazz if I saw a sturgeon in my pond hurtling around I would be too terrified to tend it, you must have got nerves of steel !

[Chagoiboy]

I also used to keep a green and a gold tench with my koi, as mentioned they dont root around any more than the koi and certainly dont clean the bottom. They took koi pellets off the surface with the koi lol.

[herbie]

I had 3 or 4 Tench in my Pond. One was a golden tench.
they where always the first too the food weahter it was
floating pellets or not.

Best Regards.

[silverghost]

OH WELL !! perhaps the Canadian Tench are more voracious than the British ones ... However the bottom of my pond isn't too bad at all,but my better half likes crystal clear water and no plants !!........ so it looks as if the new pond that has been built but not lined etc., yet may be handed over to him for the koi and nothing else.He is disgusted by my bunched bottom oxygenators that are planted in sacking and now looking like a filmset from the Titanic.I also have an island of floating plants,and the little Koi and Shubunkins like to nose around this looking for food, but this doesn't impress the boss either...I do have one Golden Orfe,but as they should not be on their own I am going to get some more in the Spring.The reason I have these is along the lines of the old Miners who kept Canaries,as the birds smelt the gas first and subsequently saved the lives of many miners -- the analogy is that the Orfe are very quick to sense a change in the water purity,so thus will alert me when I see one floating
Anyway I am going to buy 2 Tench, but no snails(who would put these in a pond they are bad enough in the garden) and more Orfe.The Koi (6 of them) can stay with the rest,and we will introduce new Koi to the new pond. Definitely NO Sturgeons!!
I am hoping that someone on this forum will say "TENCH DO CLEAN UP GREAT!!" ??????

[Jagger]

I am hoping that someone on this forum will say "TENCH DO CLEAN UP GREAT!!" ??????

Won't happen because it doesn't happen.I have both golden and green tench in my pond and the bottom gets cleaned by the pump and filters.The fish make it dirty.All fish.Any fish.

The golden tench is essentially an albino green tench.

The tench is not the "Doctor Fish" of myth either although a green tench is very useful for spotting costia before it gets going too hard.

-- the analogy is that the Orfe are very quick to sense a change in the water purity,so thus will alert me when I see one floating

Nope.But they will jump out of the pond first due to low oxygen levels.Probably before the koi do.Where one orfe goes the rest tend to follow,so you'll end up with orfe all over the garden after a storm.