This is Europe's largest freshwater fish and is only one of two catfish indigenous to Europe the other from the same genus, Silurus aristotelis from the River Akelhoos in Greece. This species looks like the other wels, but its dorsal fin is smaller, and it has just two pairs of barbels. The caudal fin is distinct from the anal fin. In the east, there are some others, even Japan has a native species.

The Common name for glanis is the 'Wels Catfish' and is found in the Rhine River in Germany eastwards to the Black and Caspian Seas. It inhabits not only the Rhine in Germany, but more or less the whole country. It is naturally distributed in the whole of central Europe, eastern Europe and the southern part of central Asia as far west as France and as far east as larger parts of Russia in the north and as far south as Turkey and even a bit of Iran and Iraq. It is also native to some regions of southern Norway and Sweden. They were also introduced to some parts of Italy, mainly the Po delta where they became extremely common and the record catch of 2.78metres and a weight of 144kg. (316.8lbs) actually came from here. They also now live in the River Ebro in spain and some other waters of this country. Furthermore they were introduced to some lakes in Greece, as well as some lakes in England during the latter part of last century where clubs have been formed, relating only to these fish, with videos being produced of them being caught for sport in England, and other parts of Europe.

The diet in its natural habitat consists mainly of fish, especially species which are more common on the ground, but sometimes it also hunts near the surface. It eats also amphibians, small swimming mammals like mice, rats or voles (a normal dog is much too small, there are stories of dog-eating wels, but it was only a small dachshund puppy which is not bigger than a vole, so this is actually not that spectacular), dependent on its size a wide range of water birds from small hatchlings up to adult ducks. It consumes also comparably much invertebrates like crayfish, insects and their larvae, worms and leeches.

The elongated Wels body consists of a powerful forebody and a laterally greatly compressed tail shaft; the prominent anal fin merges with the caudal fin. This fish, with its calm undulating tail movements normally has its long pair of upper jaw barbels pointing straight forward, while the four smaller barbels of the lower lip hang down. The dorsal fin, consisting of just four rays, seems small for such a powerful animal.

What intrigues me most about this fish is the small size of the dorsal (which is common in the Siluridae family) compared to the size of the body and the long anal fin. Identification of the Silurus genus relates to the long anal fin, small dorsal fin with four or five rays without a spine, and minus an adipose fin. The caudal fin is usually round to emarginate.

A friend of mine actually went of to Spain to fish for them in a Lake flowing from the Ebro River where they were seemingly introduced by a German ichthyologist, and he had a rare old time!. Altogether I think, a very interesting animal.

Acknowledgement: Markus Bühler who helped to prepare this updated version ( Oct. 2008).