Fish Stories
'Big Mama' has tourists running scared
September 13 2006 at 06:58AM
Giant catfish scares tourists
A giant catfish is frightening tourists at a Centerparcs holiday park in Holland.
The 2.3 meter European catfish eats two or three ducks a day and has even taken a few small dogs, reports Hetlaatste News.
Dutch divers reckon 'Big Mama', in the lake of a Centerparcs at Kempervennen, could be the world's biggest.
Remco Visser, head of a Dutch diving school which uses the lake for practice dives, said the fish had scared a number of divers.
But he added: "They don't have to worry because catfish don't eat humans. Most of the ducks have moved to another lake but visiting ducks, who don't know there is a catfish in the water, get caught."
Centerparcs guards patrol the lake to keep away fishermen who have been trying to climb over the fences at night to catch Big Mama.
Biologist Jean Henkes, of Centerparcs, added: "The catfish has grown so big because of the excellent water quality, enough food and rest."
Monster catfish leaves angler reeling
What a whopper! British angler Duncan Rooke, left, and his friend Stephen Buss hold up the record-breaking catfish that he caught while fishing in the Ebro river, outside Barcelona in Spain. Photo: AP
Ebro, Spain - It was the end of a week-long holiday in Spain for a group of friends on a fishing trip. They were angling at a spot in Ebro, near Barcelona, when suddenly one of them got a bite - a big bite.
Duncan Rooke is a 32-year-old gas engineer from Surrey, England. He said he could feel that the weight of the fish was "obscene".
"It dragged me down the rocks. I nearly went in," he said. "God knows how I didn't."
It took the help of four of his friends to reel the 95kg catfish in, as Rooke waited for an hour holding onto his catch in the river.
"They are scary things when you catch them," he said. "You have to grab their bottom jaw. They will shake their head, do a death roll like a crocodile.
"It can dislocate your arm. You just have to keep hold of it. They just close their mouth and hold on and try to take you back in with them."
The anglers weighed the 2.31m female Wels catfish and had it independently witnessed. Then they did what most fishermen cannot resist doing - they posed for the camera with their whopper of a catch.
The catfish may have surrended in being caught, but it did get away in the end. Rooke burped the fish to rid it of air in its stomach, and then released it back into the water.
And Rooke - who weighs 6kg less than his prize catch - can rest assured that he made it into the record books. The Catfish Conservation Group says his is the largest freshwater fish caught by a Briton, weighing half a kilogram more than the previous record holder.
Huge haul: British angler Duncan Rooke, front, and his friend Stephen Buss with the record-breaking catfish. Photo: AP
Giant catfish blamed for dog's disappearance
Berlin - A giant catfish is suspected of having eaten a dog in a German lake near the Polish border, a media report said on Friday.
The estimated 1,5m catfish has been making waves in the small lake near Gueldendorf for several years, the Berliner Kurier newspaper reported.
Catfish are generally 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 up to 300kg.
But the giant fish has developed other tastes and is emptying the lake of all the other fish. Now a small dachshund dog is believed to have been pulled under and eaten, said the report.
Lutz Affedlt, head of the Gueldendorfer Fisherman's Club, says the fish was probably planted in the lake by someone.
Several club members say they have had the phantom fish on their lines but that it has always broken off.
Attempts to net the giant catfish and to use electroshocks to stun it have so far failed. - Sapa-dpa
It's curtains for Kuno the killer catfish
Berlin - A giant catfish that ate a dog and terrorised a German lake for years has washed up dead, but the legend of "Kuno the Killer" lives on.
A gardener discovered the carcass of a 1,5m long catfish weighing 35kg this week, a spokesperson for the western city of Moenchengladbach said on Friday.
Kuno became a local celebrity in 2001 when he sprang from the waters of the Volksgarten park lake to swallow a Dachshund puppy whole. He evaded repeated attempts to capture him.
"He was our Loch Ness monster," said Uwe Heil, member of Kuno's Friends, a local rock band named after the fish.
Several fishermen identified the carcass as Kuno, but doubts linger.
"That's not the Kuno we know," said Leon Cornelius, another member of "Kuno's Friends". He said he had seen several huge catfish in the lake, one about 1,8m long with a white-spotted nose.
Low water levels and a summer heat wave probably killed the catfish, among the biggest found in Germany. The northern city of Bremen plans to stuff it and put in a museum.
Pet fish gets blamed for starting fire
London - A pet fish has been blamed for a fire in a house that almost cost a woman and her two daughters their lives.
Kipper, an 20cm catfish, is believed to have sparked the blaze when it fought with an opponent in their tank.
The Sun reports that water splashed out of the aquarium and fell on an electric plug below.
This in turn sent a power surge up the tank's light cable which burnt the plastic lid. The lid then melted and dripped onto a leather sofa which burst into flames.
Within minutes the blaze engulfed the lounge as Sharron Killahena, 25, and her children Nicole, six, and Kerry, two, slept upstairs in the house in Poole, Dorset.
Thankfully for them, a smoke alarm woke landlord Simon Justice, 25, in a different room, who woke the family in time for them to escape.
Their home was completely destroyed and their six fish died. Killahena was nevertheless grateful to have survived the ordeal: "At least we are here to tell the tale." - Ananova.com
