Tench: About the Special Healing Mucus of This Fish (5 photos)

In appearance, the tench really does resemble a doctor. An important face, like a professor with many years of experience. Red eyes, as if after a hospital shift. But the real reason is that the tench really succeeded in the business of healing. Of course, he would not be able to prescribe an accurate diagnosis and the right pills, even if he learned to talk. But he can easily push scientists to new research in the field of antibiotics.





That moment when the most advanced antibiotics are embedded in your mucus, but you have no convolutions in your brain.

It's easy to catch some kind of infectious disease when you're a fish. Ponds and lakes are closed systems. This means that a pathogenic bacterium that gets into it will quickly spread to all inhabitants. But this doesn't scare the tench! It lives in completely unsuitable conditions. Lack of oxygen, blooming water, serious ecological and biological pollution - none of this bothers the fish. The main thing is that there are dense thickets where you can hide your carcass, and crustaceans and mollusks for food.



Hey, my house is not a rotten hole! It's a fashionable and authentic loft space!

How does the fish stay healthy? It is helped by an invisible barrier at first glance - the mucous membrane. The tench is covered with a thick layer of mucus over its small scales. It helps it fight the invisible enemy.





If you constantly live in danger of death from another bacterium or virus, it is no wonder that your eyes turn red.

The mucus contains many protective substances, mainly different proteins. For example, mucins form that very thick membrane, which prevents the enemy from getting to the skin. Peptides protect the host organism: they capture pathogenic bacteria and destroy their film shell. Fish also have several enzymes that prevent bacteria from even landing on their skin! All animals have these substances, but fish and tench in particular have much more of them, both qualitatively and quantitatively.



Where are you taking me? What antibiotics? Let me go!

Scientists discovered all of the above in the laboratory. But fishermen are practical people. Why did they call tench a doctor? Because they saw how it heals fish! Fishermen note that other inhabitants of the reservoirs, when wounded, swim to the tench to smear themselves with its mucus. Sores are disinfected and heal faster than usual. The doctor fish even lets pikes get close to it! The main scourge of rivers and lakes tames its obstinate nature in order to recover.



People used to "treat" themselves with tench. It was believed that its meat relieves fever and pain.

This whole glorious army of chemicals not only helps fish survive in difficult conditions, but also advances science. At a time when bacteria have adapted to almost all antibiotics, fish mucus and its properties can save millions of lives. Perhaps the tench will become a doctor not only for its neighbors in the reservoir, but also for you and me!