Black Tench

[rarepleasures]

I was fishing a farm pond near Louth over the weekend and caught a small Tench (<1lb) that was entirely black except for a cm strip of olive green along the belly. How common is it for Tench to be so dark green it looks black?

 

[gozzer]

I know that Steve has some dark green tench in Wingham, as seen in this link

 

http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/forums/index.php?/topic/4609408-wingham-tench-pictures-wanted/?hl=%20dark%20%20tench

 

Note the one Dales is holding in post 6

 

John.

[Kappa]

Yes over the years the black tench went spotty, they were nice! In fact the tench in Wingham were lots of different hues of green. My favourites were the ones that almost had a reddish sheen under the green colour.

[Vagabond]

Like Anderoo, I have yet to catch a "black" Wingham tench, nor any "yellow-green" ones. All the ones I have had lie between bronzy-green and bronzy-bronze . Would very much like a "black" tench

 

Mind you, up until the coming fish-in, I have only fished there in daylight. Mebbe I will find they are darker and bigger at night !

[Andy Macfarlane]

Rare....it would appear that tench come in a wide variety of colours which can change, albeit quite slowly, depending on various factors, like health, diet, environment, mood and so on. I know of a stillwater where the vast majority of tench are a bright greenish/gold colour, yet less than 100 yards away, in the Forth an Clyde canal, most of the tench are like you describe.

 

I also know of another water where the odd tench come out in bright scarlet patches. Very pretty and from what I gather, nothing to do with any illnesses that can also bring tench out in red colours.

 

From what I gather, most fish have at the very least, rudimentary Chromatophores, which are pigment-containing and light-reflecting organelles in cells found in a wide range of animals including amphibians, fish, reptiles, crustaceans, cephalopods, and bacteria, which would account for their ability to change colour.

 

Even the humble perch can change shades in a matter of hours. Try putting some perch in a white bucket and some in a black bucket and take a look a few hours later. It's quite fascinating and it was something I knew of and used to my advantage when livebaiting was still accepted.

 

Another forum user (and my mate) Andy_1984 has a black tench in his fishtank and that was once a very striking bright olive colour. Whether it will ever change colour again, I don't know.

Edited May 11, 2014 by Andy Macfarlane