The other European catfish

Chrysichthys · Post by **Chrysichthys** » 06 Jul 2005, 14:35

In Shane's article about huge catfish he mentions that there are two European catfish. One is Silurus glanis, obviously, but what's the second one?

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 06 Jul 2005, 15:32

Silurus aristotelis from Greece.

never saw a pic of it, though; haven't got a clue what it looks like.
according to fishbase it's a tiny Silurus with a TL of 40 cm; but unfortunately fishbase is often quite off the hook....

If it is true, it would make a very nice fish for the cooler tank; a miniature Wels!
unless it's a rare or endangered fish ofcourse; in wich case it should be left alone.

but breeding 40 cm Wels-like catfishes in a pond would be pretty cool!

racoll · Post by **racoll** » 06 Jul 2005, 18:14

my copy of freshwater fishes by Alwyne Wheeler says they reach 1.5 metres and are only found in the river Akelhoos in Greece. Probably fairly rare then!

featherback · Post by **featherback** » 06 Jul 2005, 19:25

According to the book "Europas Ferskvands Fisk".

The Greek Catfish, Silurus aristotelis, differs from S. glanis in size (46 cm) and the number of barbels (4, glanis has 6). Other than that they are surprisingly similar.

If you're interested I could scan a drawing...

nadmonk · Post by **nadmonk** » 08 Jul 2005, 17:00

I'm not sure how accurate this drawing (or information) is having never actually seen one of these (we just don't get that many in Michigan), but here it is:

<a href="http://www.non-contradiction.com/ac_ari ... ish.asp</a>