Susanne's Big Fish

Susanne, maybe a Wels is eating your ducks. Google for "WELS CATFISH" for horrifying details and pictures.

We live in the English Lake District, where hundreds of large and small lakes and tarns are home to many species of wildfowl, Winter and Summer ... and Wels are an intermittent problem.

They are not native ... people who have them in home aquariums find that they are growing much bigger than expected, and "kindly" take them to the Lake District to free them in a convenient body of water when no-one is looking. Yes, they eat ducks, goslings and ducklings. And because we also have pike, the pike get the blame ... until someone sees a big Wels surface and reports a Loch Ness type monster!

Sue & Lesley
castlerigg

EEEEEEEGH
I surely hope not

Perhaps I should contact the local angler-club and see what they can catch ?

Did you see them in TV, "River Monsters", - they are SO HUGE !!!!

It is seriously stupid to let foreign species out in the free !

Oh yuck!! They are disgusting, wels

I wonder if that's what it is! Susanne, you'll have to get someone in to have a look.

Kristian did try, but after half an hour it became a horrible weather whith thunder and hail and lightning, so now he is sitting at the TV

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It is a small lake, but some places it is very deep, I have seen one of the horses getting too far out, probably to get to the weeds in the middle, and she had to swim !

find that thing and kill it. (sorry to be so harsh, but it will start crawling up on shore and eating small children. blech.)

scot(t) wrote:

find that thing and kill it. (sorry to be so harsh, but it will start crawling up on shore and eating small children. blech.)

EEEEK, NO, NO, NO
Don`t say so, I won`t be able to sleep at night

SUSANNE wrote:

scot(t) wrote:

find that thing and kill it. (sorry to be so harsh, but it will start crawling up on shore and eating small children. blech.)

EEEEK, NO, NO, NO
Don`t say so, I won`t be able to sleep at night

I hope it won't bite your horses Susanne!

SUSANNE wrote:

EEEEEEEGH
I surely hope not

Perhaps I should contact the local angler-club and see what they can catch ?

Did you see them in TV, "River Monsters", - they are SO HUGE !!!!

It is seriously stupid to let foreign species out in the free !

That was another really good episode for that program. Some of the episodes this season have also been
very nice. Guess I won't be skinnydipping in the great Zambezi anytime soon...

Wels Catfish

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African Tigerfish


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I hope it is "only" a pike

Yikes, that tiger fish is terrifying!!!

I don't watch that show, my studies were in aquatic biology and ichthyology (basically marine biology and the study of fish) and if those two species did what the TV and news programs said they do nothing would survive in the water with them. They are predators and they will eat a duckling, gosling or small adult bird but unless they mistake a foot or hand for a piece of food or they are defending their own young they ignore people. If you get between them and their babies they can and will attack and a bite is not something I would like to have happen but the same thing happens if you get between a bear and it's cubs but none of us would think of killing bears because of that would we?

It is true that the wels are now found in the UK and are aquarium releases but tiger fish would not survive the cold temps that far north and the wels is just one species of large catfish but there are many different species native to England that could also eat a duckling or small bird.

To give you an example of how the media sensationalizes animals take a look at noodling, there is a large catfish here that sometimes bites children, can eat birds and mammals up to the size of a raccoon (up to 5 ft and 120 pounds) and if you read some news stories you would think it was as bad as a man eating shark. In reality people fish for it by going under the water and putting their fist in it's mouth until they bite down then you wrestle it out of it's hole and try to get it out of the water!

Here is a link:
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Philter4 wrote:

I don't watch that show, my studies were in aquatic biology and ichthyology (basically marine biology and the study of fish) and if those two species did what the TV and news programs said they do nothing would survive in the water with them. They are predators and they will eat a duckling, gosling or small adult bird but unless they mistake a foot or hand for a piece of food or they are defending their own young they ignore people. If you get between them and their babies they can and will attack and a bite is not something I would like to have happen but the same thing happens if you get between a bear and it's cubs but none of us would think of killing bears because of that would we?

It is true that the wels are now found in the UK and are aquarium releases but tiger fish would not survive the cold temps that far north and the wels is just one species of large catfish but there are many different species native to England that could also eat a duckling or small bird.

To give you an example of how the media sensationalizes animals take a look at noodling, there is a large catfish here that sometimes bites children, can eat birds and mammals up to the size of a raccoon (up to 5 ft and 120 pounds) and if you read some news stories you would think it was as bad as a man eating shark. In reality people fish for it by going under the water and putting their fist in it's mouth until they bite down then you wrestle it out of it's hole and try to get it out of the water!

Here is a link:
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Hello Phil. This show really does not make the kinds of ridiculous media claims that you referenced in your first paragraph. On substance, however, I completely agree with you about the rest.

The tigerfish pictured is from the Zambezi, hence my joke about not swimming in it.

Guess what we had for dinner last night ? FISH !!!
Not a fish from the lake though, we bought it

BTW, Gremy Wade from The River Monsters is more often than not able to show that the horror stories about what the "monsters" have done, is not true.
But he electric eels ,for example, are just as dangerous as they are said to be