Wels catfish
INFORMATION
Wels catfish
The wels catfish also called sheatfish or just wels, is a large species of catfish native to wide areas of central, southern, and eastern Europe, in the basins of the Baltic, Black and Caspian Seas. It has been introduced to several countries in Western Europe, Mediterranean and Asia as a prized sport fish. Its modern day range spans from the United Kingdom in the west to western China in the east.
Ecology
The wels catfish lives in large, warm lakes and deep, slow-flowing rivers. It prefers to remain in sheltered locations such as holes in the riverbed, sunken trees, etc. It consumes its food in the open water or in the deep, where it can be recognized by its large mouth. Wels catfish are kept in fish ponds as food fish.
An unusual habitat for the species exists inside the Chernobyl exclusion zone, where a small population lives in abandoned cooling ponds and channels at a close distance to the decommissioned power plant. These catfish appear healthy, and are maintaining a position as top predators in the aquatic ecosystem of the immediate area
Description
The wels is one of the largest freshwater fish in Europe and Western Asia, only exceeded by the anadromous Atlantic and beluga sturgeon. Most adult wels catfish are about 1.3–1.6 m (4 ft 3 in – 5 ft 3 in)
long; fish longer than 2 m (6 ft 7 in) are a rarity. At 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in)
they can weigh 15–20 kg (33–44 lb) and at 2.2 m (7 ft 3 in)
they can weigh 65 kg (143 lb).
Only under exceptionally good living circumstances can the wels catfish reach lengths of more than about 2 m (6 ft 7 in). Examples include the record wels catfish of Kiebingen
(near Rottenburg, Germany), which was 2.49 m (8 ft 2 in) long and weighed 89 kg (196 lb). Even larger specimens have been caught in Poland (2.61 m 109 kg), the Czech Republic (2.64 m ), the Dnieper River in Ukraine, the Volga River in Russia,
the Ili River in Kazakhstan, France, Spain (in the Ebro),
Serbia in Gruža Lake, where a 2.4 m (7 ft 10 in) long specimen weighing 117 kg (258 lb) was caught on 21 June 2018 and the Danube river, where a catfish measuring 2.75 m (9.0 ft) and weighing 117 kg (258 lb) was caught at Đerdap gorge in the same year, and Greece, where this fish was introduced a few decades ago. Greek wels grow well thanks to the mild climate, lack of competition, and good food supply.
The heaviest authenticated specimen, captured from the river Po by a Hungarian fisherman in 2010, weighed 134.97 kg (297.6 lb), although there are recent anecdotal reports of larger wels exceeding 140 kg (300 lb). Meanwhile, the longest wels on record was an unweighed specimen from
the Po measuring 2.85 m (9.4 ft), captured in 2023.