Wels Catfish (Silurus glanis) in NJ

black_sun

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Jul 31, 2008
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I just came back from my favorite hole-in-the-wall LFS...

Anyone in NJ want a 6-7" Wels Catfish?

The owner snagged me as soon as I walked into the store (he knows I love catfish and crayfish, so anytime anything new from either group comes in I get dragged around the store) and showed me the catfish. Man, it is awesome looking. Now, if someone would only build me a pond, I'd buy it. But in any event, it was really neat to see one in real life... I wonder how long it sits at the LFS before someone buys it. I hope it stays there for a while, it'd be interesting to see how quickly/slowly it grows (anyone know their growth rate, off hand?).
 

mkman

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If I'm correct they grow slowly. There is someone with a large albino wels and its a slow grower.
 

PennReels84

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where in nj??
 

black_sun

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mkman;2902571; said:
If I'm correct they grow slowly. There is someone with a large albino wels and its a slow grower.
Hmm, I wonder how old some of those monsters are that they catch on the fishing shows now. Real cool though, and I bet an albino wels looks real neat. ^_^


PennReels84;2902575; said:
where in nj??
East Hanover, Essex County
 

Acheloos

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In fact the wels is like most other fish which reaches large sizes a very fast-growing. Of courese there are a lot of parametres like water temperature and availability of food, but in general they grow very fast. They will reach a metre in a comparably short time, and slow down with their growth when they are about this length, but even then they can grow comparably fast. But anyway, it is highly unlikely that any wels would only come close to 2m in a pond or aquarium.
 

mkman

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Acheloos, the piraiba (brachyplatystoma filamentosum) is a very large catfish and there are many on here who have some for at least a year now and its only 12 inches or slightly more. I would say thats fairly slow growing as a RTC could grow to 12 inches in a matter of months.
 

necrocanis

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I can attest the the piraiba growing slow, but have no expirience with the wels. My piraiba has been eating like a pig over the last few months and has only put on another 2" maybe in like 4 months. Water params are perfect. Did get a bladder infection from overeating, but he's better and eating good again. There is a member that has a fila that is over 4', he said he's had it about 6 years I believe. Keeps it in a 20,000 gal pond.
 

Acheloos

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Of course there are exceptions, so I wrote that MOST fish which reach large sizs do grow fast. Sometimes there are differences even among very similar species. Pikes can show monstrously fast growth with enough food, but muskies grow in general much slower. But there are a lot of big fish which grow very fast, for example arapaimas, the giant pangasius and beluga sturgeons. There are of course even small fish which can grow very fast, especially species with a short life.
 

necrocanis

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Guess the only thing to do it buy one and grow it out :)
 
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