After 8 to 10 days the eggs hatch. As they grow they remain in shoals. Only very large Chub become solitary. It displays great resistance to a shortage of oxygen. It seeks food among plant growth, its diet most frequently consisting of insect larvae, molluscs, and worms.
Tench tend to live in small shoals.
If the water temperature drops below 5 C the Tench shoal withdraw to deep places, waiting out the winter motionless and without food just above the bottom or buried in mud. Recommended baits are Sweet Corn, Luncheon Meat, Bread, Maggots and Casters. All these baits can be fished over a bed of Hemp Seed or Mashed Bread to good effect. The Rudd lives mainly in lowland, slow-flowing waters, but also inhabits the still waters of dams, ponds, pools and lakes. It prefers densely over-grown waters.