Family Catfish - Siluridae
Size
40 " ( 100 cm)
Description
Wels Catfish are an an eel like fish with long, slimy, scaleless body , with a large head and mouth. Wels have 6 barbules, two long ones on the upper jaw for detecting its prey like a moustache and four shorter ones on the lower jaw tactile on the river bed.
Colour can vary, normally they have dark eyes with a dark greeny black body with creamy yellowish sides creating a mottled effect. Albino variants are sometimes found rarely , with red eyes and a creamy/yellow colouration tothe body.
It has a small almost pointless looking dorsal fin whilst the anal fin stretches backwards until it almost reaches the tail.
Diet
The Wels eats fish, frogs small water birds and mammals.The mouth is adapted with tiny velcro like teeth for holding prey before passing it to the two sets of crushing pads at the back of the throat.
Habitat
This is an introduced species that likes dark places found in many lakes and resevoirs.