Catfish eats dog

[grinner]

Catfish eats dog
From correspondents in Berlin
August 29, 2004

A GIANT catfish is suspected of having eaten a dog in a German lake near the Polish border.

The estimated 1.5m catfish has been making waves in the small lake near Gueldendorf for several years, according to the Berliner Kurier newspaper.

Catfish are scavengers that feed on plants and animals on the beds of lakes and rivers. They can, on rare occasions, grow up to 4.5m and weigh as much as 300kg.

But the giant fish has developed other tastes and is emptying the lake of all the other fish. Now a small dachshund is believed to have been pulled underwater and eaten, the report said.

Attempts to net the catfish have failed. link (http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,10597003%255E13762,00.html)

[BlackThorn]

And people think I'm foolish for being freaked out over the concept of swimming in lakes . . .

:yes:

[Darth Buddha]

Forget netting it. Up until recently, I believe Game & Fish Wardens were using a mild electirc current between two boats to stun fish. It is, for example, the only way they know that muskellunge (muskies) grow beyond 7 feet in Lake Pymatumning in PA and OH.. becasue nobody is going to be able to land a 7 foot musky. You'd need saltwater gear, and muskies are too sensitive to bite when there is tackle that heavy involved.

I'm sure a bottom feeder like a catfish has too soft a palate for saltwater gear as well... barring of coure the rare "fish story".

[grinner]

Makes you wonder what is at the bottom of the Great Lakes.

[AyuRocks]

Weird things in deep water freak me out - I don't even want to think about what's in the great lakes.. eeep.

[scrape_medic]

Maybe the Loch Ness Monster isn't a dinosaur.....but just a giant catfish, eating the odd Haggis that wanders too close to the waters edge.......

[Sarumouse]

will you stop talking about that? How can I ever go diving again??? ;)

[Col.Batguano]

well someone over there should start going Noodling (http://espn.go.com/outdoors/general/columns/sutton_keith/1336494.html)

[Mrelia]

I say that if you put enough men and enough beer to the task, any fish can be caught!

:D

[Darth Buddha]

At first I thought you were talking a noodle rod.. but there is no way I'm going after a 100kg plus catfish with my bare hands unless it is in cold water dive gear.. when it is cold enough for my warm blood to give me SOME sort of advantage!

[Boron]

My Dad told me stories of big catfish in the Ohio river, close to dams. He told me that divers had to move them out of the way to perform maintenance. I don't know if he was just telling me stories, or what, but catfish CAN grow to be huge.

[mgraylorn]

One of my brothers lives in a California retirement trailer park where they have ponds that connect to irrigation ditches. Some catfish have made their way into the ponds. They regularly eat baby ducks that have the misfortune to be born around the ponds.

Even grosser than that, the trailer park community puts out a newsletter and notes the dissappearing ducklings in each issue.

I can't believe anyone in my family would willingly move to someplace called "Happy Wanderer Trailer Park".

[BrowderChick]

OMG that is a huge fish!

[Twich]

And people think I'm foolish for being freaked out over the concept of swimming in lakes . . .

:yes:


Me too Blackthorn!!!!

[bubblez]

big uns (http://www.bassmex.com/pages/amazon_catfish.htm)

bigger uns (http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science/12/01/cambodia.catfish.ap/)

[Clarsax]

Catfish can grow to be gigantic, and I've heard they'll eat just about anything they can swallow. Well I guess that's one more reason to keep pets away from lakes. I don't know how they'll manage to catch that thing.

[Saajak]

Sturgeon and gar can get huge, and are twice as ugly.

[Judith]

Catfish can grow to be gigantic, and I've heard they'll eat just about anything they can swallow.


The rule with a lot of pet fish is:

If it fits in its mouth...it'll eat it.

I imagine that's true for the big guys as well.

It's sad about the dog and its owners, but catfish amaze me...especially the really big ones. I think they're beautiful.

[RustySlinky]

I heard there's catfish in the Mississippi big 'nuff ta swallow grown men whole.
:eek:
Helluva lotta nuggets eh?
. . . Although the Mekong giant catfish may be the largest species of catfish, thousands of other species of catfish exist. According to John Lundberg, researcher with the All Catfish Species Inventory, 2,800 species of catfish have already been described and an additional 1,500 species may yet be discovered. "One out of every four freshwater fish, one out of ten fishes, and one out of twenty vertebrates…is a catfish." . . .

Link: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/11/photogalleries/giantcatfish/

[bubblez]

:sing: "Like a stuurr-her-her-urrrgeon..... caught for the very first time..."


sturgeon (http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/natbltn/600-699/nb663.htm)

[Fyodor]

I'd still rather swim in a lake than the sea... too many critters in the sea.

[TheBladeRoden]

Anyone ever see "Big Fish"?

[scaperbuddy]

They need to keep little kids away from that lake too then. Poor dog.

[Darth Buddha]

One of my brothers lives in a California retirement trailer park where they have ponds that connect to irrigation ditches. Some catfish have made their way into the ponds. They regularly eat baby ducks that have the misfortune to be born around the ponds.

Muskies have been observed to take down ducks... and take pieces, including toes, off of water skiers.

Sturgeon and gar can get huge, and are twice as ugly.

Yep, and are probably the source of the "Lake Champlain Monster" and the monster reports from other North American higher latitude lakes.

You know, remembering just what I used to catch catfish on (read:ANYTHING), maybe you COULD go after it using sea tackle!

[Saajak]

We don't worry about catfish, sturgeon, gar, muskies, and the like when swimming in lakes and rivers up here. We're more concerned about that snapping turtle that might be sitting at the bottom waiting to bite off some toes!

[Shipscat]

You know, remembering just what I used to catch catfish on (read:ANYTHING), maybe you COULD go after it using sea tackle![/QUOTE]

Especially if you use a little doggie for bait...

You know, I can believe this. Catfish are scary. When I was a kid, my cousin and I caught a huge one..we were at the lake, camping, and the adults had gone to bed but we were still fishing..and he had obviously caught something BIG-we both struggled with the pole for a long time, and finally he waded out and pulled the line in hand over hand, and we got it on land, and it was an enormous catfish (especially to two kids). It was probably about three feet, because it was as long as an adult's arm.

It made a break for the lake and we got it back on land again, and then it CHASED us. We were screaming, and moving our bare feet away from it (while I was still trying to stay in between it and the lake, so it didn't get away again) and it was chomping it's mouth up and down and menacing us, and traveling pretty good across land, and all the commotion woke the grownups and someone came and hit it on the head with a hammer. (you know, the one you use for the tent pegs). It was pretty scary. Made good fillets, though, and my cousin got quite a lot of mileage over landing a fish that big.

[Boron]

I once lived in a River camp on the Ohio for a summer. We ran Trot lines just to see what we would catch, and we caught a gar one night. That was the ugliest fish I have ever seen. It was dead, tho. It was about a foot and a half long, and I thought it was a throwback to something prehistoric until my buddy told me what it was.