#2116 · 🐟 fish
Wels Catfish
🇳🇱 Europese meerval ·Silurus glanis
📍 46010 Marcaria MN, Italia
📍 8462 Rheinau, Schweiz
📍 Torrejón el Rubio, 10694, Cáceres, Spain
📍 88097 Eriskirch, Germany
10 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
- 1. © Manuel Raab · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 2. © cleeb · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 3. © Lupoli Roland · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 4. © Bernard DUPONT · CC BY-SA 4.0
- 5. © Manuel Raab · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 6. © Alberto Tamietti · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 7. 46010 Marcaria MN, Italia:© Parco Regionale Oglio Sud · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 8. 8462 Rheinau, Schweiz:© Ingo Rogalla · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 9. Torrejón el Rubio, 10694, Cáceres, Spain:© Thomas Gibson · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 10. 88097 Eriskirch, Germany:© Jeremy Barker · CC BY-NC 4.0
what is it?
The wels catfish (/ˈwɛls/ or /ˈvɛls/; Silurus glanis ), also called sheatfish , 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 sport fish and is now found from the United Kingdom all the way east to Kazakhstan and China and south to Greece and Turkey. It is a scaleless freshwater fish...
base stats
Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).
fun facts
- Spotted 18 times in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: the #46 most seen of the fish in NL.
- 1,833 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Scientifically named in 1758 (268 years ago).
fact sheet
- English
- Wels Catfish
- Nederlands
- Europese meerval
- scientific name
- Silurus glanis
- class
- Actinopterygii
- order
- Siluriformes
- family
- Siluridae
- IUCN Red List
- LC · least concern
- sightings in NL
- 18
- sightings in Europe
- 1,511
- sightings worldwide
- 1,833
- GBIF records in NL
- 2,481
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1758
IUCN in Dutch: niet bedreigd. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 112581, Wikidata Q159323, GBIF 2337607, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.