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Learn more about the catfish, catfish farming, catfish cooking and just about everything related to catfish from the resources on Catfish Unlimited.com. Some common names for catfish - spotted catfish, river catfish, channel catfish.
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European Catfish
European Catfish or Wels, Silurus glanis. Foreign names- Wels, Waller (German); siluro (Italian), sum (Polish), silure (French), som (Croatian).
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A BIG Wels Catfish-The length was 215 cm (6.55 ft) and the weight was 85 kg (187.4 lbs), caught by Lucas Van Der Geest.
European Catfish or Wels, lenghtened body is wide in the front and slightly flattened at the back level with the tail fin. Their skin is scale-free, and is only covered in slime which gives catfish a sticky appearance. Their head is large and massive, flattened along the sides which and features a wide partially open mouth, with 6 wiskers: 2 long ones on the upper mouth and 4 somehwhat shorter wisker on the lower part.
The highly set eyes are small, which alludes to the intense night life. A long anal fin ends on the level of the tail fin from which it is divided only by a small incision. The body is gray, with darker spots on the back and flanks, while the stomach is of lighter colour.
European Catfish were introduced to British waters in the 1870's and 1880's from Germany. Some were sent by Lord Odo Russell to Frank Buckland, whose father has been a Professor at Oxford in the 1840's, and others were sent to England by Sir Stephen Lakeman from his Bucharest estates.
Seventy were introduced to the Duke of Bedford's lakes at Woburn in 1880 after being presented to the British Ambassador in Berlin. Some are still there. They are also found in Claydon Lakes, Leighton Lakes, reservoirs at Tring, Herts and the River Wissey, and an increasing number of other locations in England.
It is believed that they do not breed until the water temperatures reach 20*C., but they can survive in much colder water. The Danube, where they are found, freezes annually. They spawn in shallow zones, most frequently among tree roots. Females lay approxiamtely 30,000 eggs per kg of weight, in a nest which has been previously prepared by the male. Incubation lasts for ten days during which only the male guards and protects the eggs.
After they emerge from the egg, becoming spawn, 7 to 8 mm long, they disperse and hide in nearby vegetation. Young catfish will achieve sexual maturity within 5 or 6 years of life. They are native to much of Europe, and are found as far north as Norway and Sweden, often in lakes with "monster" myths.
They are voracious carnivores, mainly nocturnal, given to lurking in dark places under banks and overhangs. When young, catfish feed on plancton, but very soon change their diets to a regular menu of other predator fish. They wait for opportunities to feed on fish, crabs, shells and water snails. They do not hesitate to even swallow frogs, rodents, and water birds on the surface.
European catfish seem to prefer calm and deep waters, as well as slow and regular river currents. They occupy deep places full of obstacles, such as banks, protective stone walls, whirlpools, trenches in the middle of the water, sunken trees, rocky dams, and rock piles.
As with any other fish, the water temperature dictates their biological rhythm.
In Winter the water is cold, resulting in decreased feeding activity. With water temperatures rising in April and May, the digestive period is shortened. It is especially important for a female catfish to gain a lot of proteins before reproduction.
But at the end of yet another natural cycle which forces them to use up all the stored up energy, a catfish's appetite grows enormously. Beginning in September, and especially in October, colder temperatures inform them it's time for storing energy for deep Winter, which catfish will spend in deep zones with very slow water currents.
There are various fascinating stories about catfish which show them as monsters capable of swallowing anything in their way. However, in spite of the fact they have large mouths for catching very large prey, their very narrow throat stops them from swallowing too large a prey. They can live for well over 100 years. They can attain 5lbs by the third year, 180 lb by 24 years and take another 60 years to reach 500 lb. So the 19th century Russian specimens of 15 ft and 750 lb would be substantially older.
If young specimens found their way into Loch Ness in the 1880's, they could have grown to a substantial size by the 1930's, and could conceivably still be alive today. Here is a plausible scenario.
The middle decades of the 19th century were a time when it was very fashionable for the aristocracy to acquire land in Scotland. Queen Victoria had bought Balmoral Estate, and her German husband, Prince Albert, was also at the fore-front of the craze for innovation, epitomised by the Great Exhibition.
It is entirely possible that some of his aristocratic friends who had introduced the catfish, or sheet-fish as it was commonly known, to their English waters could have also attempted to introduce the commercially important species to their Highland estates as an "improvement".
The reasons for introducing them to England were two-fold; firstly "acclimatisation" of alien species of plants and animals was a popular gentleman's pastime, and secondly, a source of cheap protein offered by the catfish was an attractive proposition for feeding the Victorian working class, on which their wealth depended.
"The Times" newspaper in the 1860's hailed the new fish as "the most important animal introduction since the bringing of the turkey". The flesh was said to resemble "veal with a rich eel-like flavour, superior to salmon."
Pursuing this line of thought, two possibilities exist. One, that after introduction, the small catfish escaped the "estate" lochs and found their way downstream to Loch Ness, where they could eventually grow to prodigious size and age, and were at the same time reckoned to have perished at their original location; and two, that these young catfish lived to breeding age, unnoticed, in one or more peaty hill-lochs, where the dark water absorbed the sun's heat and reached a suitable temperature for breeding in the summer months.
A proportion of the progeny would then be available to supply Loch Ness with a continuing supply of young catfish. In either event, a Victorian gentleman's experiment could have had significant long-term consequences for the area's economy.
Highland place-names give a clue to much earlier introductions, possibly from Roman, Viking or Norman times. "Loch na Beiste" - Loch of the Beast- is a not-uncommon name for hill-lochs, and might be associated with the catfish's mature size, voracious appetite for anything swimming in the water, and ability to travel overland for moderate distances.
Introductions from continental Europe could have given rise to the dragon myth in Wales and elsewhere in the UK, and stories like the "Lambton Worm" in Weardale, County Durham.
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