Tench (Tinea), a genus of fishes of the Carp family (Cyprinidae), represented by a single species, Tinea vulgaris. The thick body is covered with small scales and abundant mucus; there is a short barbel at each side of the mouth; the pharyngeal teeth are in a single row and slightly hooked. The tench lives in lakes and rivers in France, Germany, Austria, and more rarely in England, usually in muddy waters. It is of a deep yellowish-brown colour, more rarely golden or greenish. Instances have occurred of its attaining a length of almost three feet, but a tench of half that length is unusually large. It is very tenacious of life, and, like the carp, can be conveyed to a distance alive in wet moss. It spawns in May and June, depositing its spawn among aquatic plants. The ova are very small and very numerous. In the winter the fish remains dormant in the mud. The flesh is soft and insipid, except when it is very well fed, when it becomes delicate and pleasant. It is commonly placed in ponds along with carp. Angling for tench resembles angling for carp.