Comments on: Man-Eating Catfish

By: Fhqwhgads

Fhqwhgads — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 00:24:14 +0000

If you want to see a man eating catfish, just drop by the local Knights of Columbus council hall any Friday during Lent.

By: fossilhunter

fossilhunter — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 17:22:06 +0000

Greetings All!
I once saw a man eating catfish near Grafton, IL. That is where the Mississippi River and Illinois Rivers join, and just north of where the Missouri River comes in. There is a large “pool” caused by a lock and dam in Alton. After I saw the man eating catfish, he went on to eat his fries.

By: Sordes

Sordes — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 17:06:37 +0000

Hi mystery_man! Thanks for this comment, I hope I will manage it to write some more guest-blogs here in the future. I always enjoy a good debate about such topics, and it is nice to see that here are several people which are really deep into the subject matters. There are a lot of topics I would like to bring to a bigger public, and this is a very good place to do this, especially when it comes to wide-spread misaprehension like the alleged sizes of some animals and their behavior.

By: mystery_man

mystery_man — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 13:02:04 +0000

Hello Sordes! So that is you then!

I know we have locked horns on here before and had some debate, but I really do think you have a lot of good information to share and I mean what I said about this piece. I actually do quite enjoy your comments, and this was a very well thought out article and good additional information in your comment as well. I think you’ve given a very rational and concise analysis. Good stuff.

Anyway, it is good to see your guest blog. Look forward to see more from you in the future.

By: Sordes

Sordes — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 10:17:17 +0000

Oh, and I wanted to add: The wels in England (where they were also introduced by man) are only very very small compared to those at continental Europe. This is probably a result of the climate, as its growth is highly dependent from temperature. The english record from 1997 was only a meager wels of 62lb (28.123 kilo’s), and this is already exceptional big for England. So it is hard to imagine that there were any serious injuries caused by english wels.

By: Sordes

Sordes — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 10:16:34 +0000

Thank you for the nice comments about my guest blog post!
JMonkey, you should not overestimate the stories about the european wels catfish (Silurus glanis). I have made a lot of reasearch about them in the last years, especially about their maxiumum sizes. I can ensure you that the dangerousness of the wels was highly exagerated in “River Monsters”. I have seen the episode, as well as some of the other ones, and there were really a lot of amazing footage about extraordinairy freshwater fish and a lot of interesting information. But it was also all a bit exagerated. The wels in normally a very placid animal, despite its size. There are nearly no records of any attacks at all. The one which was shown at “River Monsters” was special, because it was most probably a male which defended its brood, but even this is a really exceptional case. Furthermore the teeth of the wels are only very very small, even a pike a make much more damage. Furthermore their size is often highly exagerated. I was very happy to see that they did not used the completely unrealistic and ridiculous sizes which are often mentioned elsewhere, but spoke of a maximum size of about 3m, what seems quite possible, even given the fact that there was no single confirmed specimen which ever reached this size. Most wels in central Europe are not longer than 1,5 m, and even this is a good catch. More than 2 m is already exceptional and very rare. The growth rates given at “River Monsters” were also exagerated, they may be true for younger specimens, but not for older ones. Only in the warm waters of big streams and lakes in southern Europe, where they were introduced, lengths of 2 m and more are comparably common, but an examination of the populations showed that there seems to be a trend that the earliest “colonists” reached the largest sizes, but later generations grow lesser good, as a result of the competition for food within their own species. In very rare cases a wels will reach exceptional lengths of perhaps 2,5 m or even a little bit more, but there are only very few specimens which grow that big. I have seen one which was caught where I live, and which was one of the largest ones ever caught with rod and line in Germany. It was 2,47 m and weighed 89 kg. But even this was hardly able to swallow a human bigger than a baby. I know of two cases in which wels catfish died when they attacked floating footballs on the surface (I know of similar cases with american flathead catfish) and tried to eat them, possibly because they thought the balls were ducks or other waterfowl. They managed it to get the ball in the mouth, but were neither able to swallow them, nor to spit it out, and they suffocated. One of them was 2 m in length, and the ball was not even the size of a real football. This alone should show that a wels is hardly able to swallow a human. Some weeks ago, I read a lot of my old angling magazine, and looked especially for big wels. I found again an article which I remember which showed the heavies confirmed wels ever, which was caught at the italian Po Delta several years ago. It was 152,5 kg in weight and was 2,52 m. An ever longer but lesser heavy one was also caught at the Po, and it was 2,78 m and weighed 144 kg. The weight of wels can vary a lot at the same size, especially as old individuals gain mainly additional weight and not length. But such huge ones are incredibly rare, and furthermore even they would not be able to eat a bigger human, because their stomach is comparably small and short, and they can´t eat very long prey.
But I would prefer it to write anytime an own guest blog about this special topic.

By: JMonkey

JMonkey — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:52:43 +0000

Sorry I spelled Wels wrong. It is WELS catfish.

By: JMonkey

JMonkey — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:46:00 +0000

This may be a hoax, but there are reports that the Wales Catfish can grow large enough to attck and eat a human. On an episode of “River Monsters”, he hooked two that were as large as hima nd brought them in. Upon trying to release the Wales Catfish they turned on him, and tried to attack. In England and Spain people have been attack, and recieved serious injury from this predatory giant.

By: Arctodus

Arctodus — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:15:59 +0000

You’re right. Taking the time to do research usually doesn’t take more than a few minutes.

By: mystery_man

mystery_man — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 10:17:12 +0000

Thank you guest blogger from Germany! Excellent piece and quite interesting. I like your critical and rational approach to these things. Good work.