Wels (Silurus glanis)

[jazz]

Just seena MONSTER picture of a wells catfish, was 8ft long......wow anyone tried to keep one of them???

[Silurus]

I have kept the very similar <i>Silurus asotus</i>. Nice fish, but needed plenty of live food. It got along well with a <i>Bagrus docmac</i> as a tankmate, but then it was only 8 inches long.

[jscoggs27]

A freind of mine has a cold setup with common carp etc. He had a locally caught wells about 10 inches long. But soon released it when he woke up one morning to find the tail of one of his smaller carp (about 6 inches) sticking out of its mouth. Fishermen are finding these more and more common in british waters. I wonder what effect this is going to have on native species. There are alot of tales of monster wells in local lakes but most are just that stories! Still I believe numbers are on the increase.
jason

[jazz]

Isnt there a famous abby ground which has a lake full of them, lol, reminds me of grumpier old men - when he goes after that big catty

[Silurus]

That'll be Woburn Abbey, I think. If I'm not mistaken, this is one place where the wels was originally introduced to Britain.

[jscoggs27]

Do you think that larger numbers of this species in our waters is going to cause problems? Keep in mind, that we dont have vast expanses of water here. and the rivers are not huge like some european ones. So far I dont think the numbers cause a threat but how long will it take before this species is well established?
jason

[Chrysichthys]

I think if it were able to establish itself here it would already have happened by now and we would be overrun with them, because to this day they are smuggled from the continent and released for angling purposes.

[PeacockBass]

i have been looking for glanis for a while now.. i have yet to get one...

i would keep it in a large out door ponds.. i love these catfish... wish i could get my hands on some albino ones aswell..

i belive the record is 16 feet long 650 pounds... not sure on the weight. but it was around 600+ pounds

[coelacanth]

I think if it were able to establish itself here it would already have happened by now and we would be overrun with them, because to this day they are smuggled from the continent and released for angling purposes.

I don't believe our waters get warm enough, for long enough, for successful breeding to occur except on very rare occasions.
Even taking global warming into account, the biggest fish recorded in the UK for many decades was only a shade over 47lb. Then all of a sudden these huge specimens start to appear. Hmmmmm, native grown fish? I don't think so!
I doubt there are enough warm months of the year here in the UK for effective growth to occur to take this species into the 100lb+ range.
As for causing a problem, it's too simple just to talk about the predation effect. UK rivers and lakes have been messed around with so much that barely any trace of a natural fauna exists anywhere south of Scotland or west Wales. What is of concern is the introduction of parasites from European fish into UK waters. Where this has occurred in the US it has nearly driven several species to extinction.

[lophius]

I had one for several years, I got it as a 2" baby, and I know that it came from the continent,:oops: bought in by an importer with lots of american and european fish.

I kept the fish on its own as soon as it ate a 6" bowfin that it was housed with (the wels was only 4" at the time and took 2 days to swallow the bowfin). By feeding only once a week it grew to 3ft in 4yrs, unfortunately I lost the fish just as I had built a pond large enough to house it mid last year.

I think they do breed regularly here in the UK where they have established themselves and in actual fact are far more widespread than one would imagine. (I caught a 13lb one on the thames). I also think that we are starting to get a few very large home grown specimens, certainly the 60 pounders that have been caught recently are 'native'. I suspect that within the next few years we will really see some 100lb fish.