Wels catfish
The wels catfish (/ˈwɛls/ or /ˈvɛls/; Silurus glanis), also called sheatfish or just wels, is a large species of catfish native to wide areas of central, southern, and eastern Europe, in the basins of the Baltic, Black and Caspian Seas. It has been introduced to Western Europe as a prized sport fish and is now found from the United Kingdom east to Kazakhstan and China and south to Greece and Turkey. The wels is the largest freshwater fish in Europe. The longest wels on record was an unweighed specimen from the Po river in Italy, measuring 2.85 m (9.4 ft), captured in 2023.
| Wels catfish | |
|---|---|
| Near Leipzig, Germany | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Siluriformes |
| Family: | Siluridae |
| Genus: | Silurus |
| Species: | S. glanis |
| Binomial name | |
| Silurus glanis | |
| Range of the wels catfish. Red: native occurrence. Blue: occurrence in coastal waters. Orange: (re)introduced | |
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