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Silurus glanis Linnaeus, 1758

 

Image contributors to this species:

Johnny Jensen's Photographic Library (1) Frants Lehmann (6 Stamps) Karl-Heinz Dau (4 Stamps) Reinhold  Wawrzynski (4) Tobias Koch (3) The Compleat Ebro Angler (1)

ScotCat Sources:

Factsheet Art Gallery Etymology = Genus  Etymology = Species

Other Sources:

Search  FishBase  Blog  Wikipedia  Catalog of Fishes  Global Biodiversity Information Facility  FishNet2  iNaturalist

Relevant Information:

Description: Dorsal spines (total): 1 - 1; Dorsal soft rays (total): 4 - 5; Anal spines: 1;Anal soft  rays: 90 – 95. Caudal fin with 17 rays. Occurs mainly in large lakes and rivers, though occasionally enters brackish water in the Baltic and Black Seas. Found in deep waters of  dams constructed on the lower reaches of rivers. Known to feed at night on ducks, voles, crayfish and small fishes. Spawns in the salt water of the Aral Sea (at Kulandy). Aquarium Care: You can of course keep small Wels Catfish in an aquarium where feeding is no problem with dim lighting and a large external filter and they will eat anything (just keep an eye on your household ‘cat’), but where would it go after outgrowing your tank as Public Aquariums have probably their full quota. As they are very predatory, you should never keep it together with smaller fish, because especially the small ones can swallow very big things. You should also get it some kind of shelter like a root or some kind of tube. Diet: You can actually keep a Wels in an aquarium as long as it is small enough, but you should NOT give it normal catfish food which contains a lot of plant-material. S. glanis is a highly carnivorous predator and will eat a lot of things. Worms are very good, as well as, dependent on its size, insect larvae. Crushed snails also work, but if they get bigger you should mainly feed them with fish. They will even eat dead fish or chunks of it, and I have often read that they even eat normal meat and squid in aquariums, but over a longer time this is possibly not that good.

Common Name:

Wels catfish

Synonyms:

Siluris glanis, Silurus silurus, Silurus glanis aralensis 

Family:

Siluridae

Distribution:

Europe and Asia: Russia, Central & Eastern Europe. Germany, upper Rhine and eastwards to  the Black and Caspian Seas. Introduced to other waters for fishing purposes such as the River Ebro in Spain.

Size:

2.3m. (9ft)

Temp:

04-20°C (35-67°F)

p.H.

6.0-8.0.

Reference:

Bühler, Markus. (pers. comm. Oct. 2008).
Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2008. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication. www.fishbase.org, version (11/2008).  
ScotCat Factsheet no. 001 Jan. 1997.



Back to Family page

Family: Siluridae  Back to Ident-A-Cat  Click on Thumbnails

Click for full image Silurus glanis
Click for full imageSilurus glanis
Stamp
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Click for full imageSilurus glanis
Bioparco foundation of Rome in the heart of Bourgeois Villa
Click for full imageSilurus glanis
Bioparco foundation of Rome in the heart of Bourgeois Villa
Click for full imageSilurus glanis
Potsdamer Museums aquarium, Germany, 170 cm.
Click for full imageSilurus glanis
Potsdamer Museums aquarium, Germany, 160 cm.
Click for full imageSilurus glanis
Juvenile
Click for full imageSilurus glanis
Juvenile feeding
Click for full imageSilurus glanis
Juvenile-showing gape of mouth
Click for full imageSilurus glanis
Juvenile
Click for full imageSilurus glanis
Caught in the River Ebro, Spain, and returned to the River after catchment

 

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