Externally, easily distinguishable from all species of fish. The body is thick, clunky, with a cropped tail. Mouth terminal, very small, fleshy, having in the corners on one little tendril. Pharyngeal teeth single-row, wide, the ends are bent into small hooks.
Head small, eyes small, with red eyes. All fins are rounded. The ventral fins of the males are much longer, especially in Mature individuals. The skin is thick. Scales small, firmly seated, covered with a large layer of mucus. In the lateral line from 87 to 105 scales.
It is widely distributed, mainly in the lakes and floodplain ponds basins like the Baltic and Black seas.
Length to 70 sm, weight to 7 kg.
The color of this fish depends on the quality of water, character of soil and light conditions of the water bodies in which it dwells. The back of Lin dark green, sides olive-green with a Golden tint; the belly is grayish. In the rivers and lakes clean it is always more yellow than in the shady overgrown ponds, where the almost black copies. All fins very dark, almost black.
Caught Lin the air is covered by large black spots due to folding and peeling from the skin, formless lumps of mucus, covering the body.
Lin is a typical representative of the lake-river complex of fish. Overgrown oxbow lakes, backwaters of rivers, overgrown lakes, ponds, well warmed up sites of water bodies with stagnant water and a muddy bottom is the best place for him habitat. Lin avoids currents and cold water, tolerates oxygen deficit, low quality of water and is pronounced “couch potato.” He has lived for most of the year in the same places, leads a solitary life, large clusters do not form, migration does, except that during the flood can take over a significant distance.
Small groups of lines are collected only during the breeding season and in autumn, in October-November, when deposited in the winter in the deepest areas of a lake or river Bay, sometimes burrowing in the mud or silt. The state of winter torpor in Lin so strong that extracted from the sludge specimen for a long time do not give any external signs of life. Revival starts in the early spring, in March-April, as soon as the lip. In this period the lines begin enhanced intensive feeding, continued until the beginning of reproduction.
Lin becomes sexually Mature in 3-4 years with a body length of 17-18 cm late Spawning begins in late may at a water temperature of about 20°C (not below 15-16°C) and lasts 1.5-2 months until the beginning of July, takes place in 2-3 reception at intervals corresponding to the time of ripening of another portion of caviar. The tench spawns in the composition of disparate groups usually on the flooding of rivers and coastal lakes with almost pure water, so the process of spawning to observe very difficult.
Eggs are laid at a depth of 0.6-1 m for the underground parts of plants and rhizomes, much of it falls to the ground and dies from silting. The first approach tench spawning usually coincides with the end of the flood and recession of the water from the spawning grounds, which leads to drying and death of calves, especially the mass in dry years.
Caviar at Lin small, greenish. Fertility is huge and ranges from 42 thousand to 600 thousand eggs. For example, individuals with a length of 18 cm and a weight of 200 g absolute fecundity is about 63 thousand, with a length of 25 cm and a weight of 400 g – 320 thousand eggs. In the pre-spawning period, the number of Mature eggs of the first portion is about 50% of the absolute fecundity. Delayed incubation of calf is completed very quickly, within 3-4 days. After hatching, the larvae lead a sedentary lifestyle, the initial stages of development are long. During this period, the juveniles are not to be found elsewhere, not yet formed fry. On the larval stages of development, a huge number of juveniles for various reasons, dies.
Average growth rate varies considerably depending on the type of habitat, its food capacity, climatic conditions. In the southern regions the rate of growth of Lin is higher than in the North, as the temperature conditions under which there is a more complete food utilization and the use of it for growth, they are closer to the optimum. In natural water bodies of Belarus the fry grows slowly to the end of the first year reaches a length of 2.5-4 cm and weight of about 2 g; the second – of length 8 cm, weight 15 g, the fifth-sixth length of 18-20 cm and the weight is 200-240 g. In terms of vysokokormny ponds with supplementary feeding line can reach in the first year of mass 50 g, the second – 250 g, the third 800, Single copies of the line reached a length of 70 cm and the weight about 7 kg. life expectancy Lin in vivo of about 13 years.
In the early stages of development, after resorption of the yolk SAC, the larvae of Lin pass to feeding by zooplankton and algae, and then invertebrates and bottom. Adult tench are readily consume benthic crustaceans, larvae of chironomids and other insects, small shellfish, water donkeys, oligochaete worms, which are produced in silt and mud.
Often they eat aquatic plants, overgrown by filamentous algae, detritus, and silt. In search of food tench, like the carp, long dig in muddy bottoms or near-bottom thickets. Feeding line can be easily detected by the chain of bubbles appearing on the surface of the water.
This fish has significant commercial value. Its meat has high taste qualities and valuable chemical composition. Unfortunately, the catches of tench in the natural waters of Belarus was never significant and did not exceed 1.5% (usually 0.5-1%) of all caught fish.
Has a value and as the object of sport fishing. Catch tench float rod with a thin leash and a small sensitive bobber. Fly fishing line requires a lot of patience, training and exposure as this fish is very stolid and passive.
The best time for angling is considered throughout the late spring and early summer, when in search of food Lin approaches the coast. In some shallow well-warmed, early dehiscing ponds tench taken the bait as soon as the ice melts. Summer Lin quite fat and rarely takes the bait. In late summer and early September when it starts to cool water and thins the grass lines lead a wandering life, and then begins a short fall bite. The best time for night fishing for tench is considered the morning and in the evening before sunset and the best weather – warm, cloudy, with drizzling rain. The nozzle can serve as bloodworms, earth worms and dung. To catch a tench it is necessary only from the bottom.
Places to choose fishing around the coastal of reeds and cane, in “Windows” among the grass or along the edge of thickets. The success of fishing is facilitated by the bait of chopped worms, bloodworms, bread. Bite Lin is different from bites of other fish that he first “taste” the bait, some times throwing it. This game can last up to 5 minutes before Lin dare “bite seriously.”
Food Lin is consumed in any form – boiled, fried, smoked.
