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India-Pakistan
Mutant fish 'killing people in river'
2008-10-09
Posted by:Oztralian

#17  Well, they were using stinkbait.
Posted by: Deacon Blues   2008-10-09 19:19  

#16  I think the largest fresh water fishes are... the Zambeze shark and the Lake Nicaragua shark.
Posted by: JFM   2008-10-09 17:58  

#15  FROM : Guiness Book of World Records
http://www.thunderstone.com/texis/site/demos/gbwr/+QheFLP_eohbnmeE-7mkeutwww/record.html

" Fishes - Gnathostomata, Agnatha : Largest freshwater
Description: The largest fish that spends its whole life in fresh or brackish water is the rare Pla beuk (Pangasianodon gigas). It is confined to the Mekong River and its major tributaries in China, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand. The largest specimen, captured in the River Ban Mee Noi, Thailand was reportedly 3 m 9 ft 10 1/4 in long and weighed 242 kg 533.5 lb. This was exceeded by the European catfish or wels (Silurus glanis) in earlier times (in the 19th century lengths up to 4.57 m 15 ft and weights up to 336.3 kg 720 lb were reported for Russian specimens), but today anything over 1.83 m 6 ft and 91 kg 200 lb is considered large. The arapaima (arapaima glanis), also called the pirarucu, found in the Amazon and other South American rivers and often claimed to be the largest freshwater fish, averages 2 m 6 1/2 ft and 68 kg 150 lb. The largest 'authentically recorded' measured 2.48 m 8 ft 1 1/2 in in length and weighed 147 kg 325 lb. It was caught in the Rio Negro, Brazil in 1836. In September 1978, a Nile perch (Lates niloticus) weighing 188.6 kg 416 lb was netted in the eastern part of Lake Victoria, Kenya.
Country: BRA Rio Negro, Brazil / KEN Kenya, Lake Victoria /"

Google Image search of Texas Catfish :
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Texas+Catfish&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2

I've caught some in the Guadalupe River. Have also seen them eat water birds and once, chased a small dog that was swimming. (The dog made it)
Thar be some bigguns in Texas.

Larry Everett
Posted by: Larry Everett   2008-10-09 15:19  

#14  FYI, the records for US catfish are:
Blue catfish- 124 lbs
Flathead Catfish- 91 lbs
Channel Catfish- 58 lbs
Mind you there are records of flathead around 100 lbs that were caught on "unlimited tackle". Flatheads are most likely those giants at the bottom of dams etc., blue cats are riverine fish. So blue cats are the giants of the Mississippi river and are most likely also found in the Ohio and Missouri river.
Posted by: bruce   2008-10-09 15:12  

#13  And, you know, the thing about a goonch... he's got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be living... until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then... ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin'...
Posted by: Quint   2008-10-09 15:08  

#12  I saw this movie when I was 12 or 13 on "Shock Theatre" on Channel 33.
Posted by: Mike   2008-10-09 13:25  

#11  It swallowed Chang whole I tell ya.
Posted by: ed   2008-10-09 13:14  

#10  European and asain catfish (silures) are not from the same stock and I think not even emparented to tehj American catfish (even if the later can be found now in european rivers after accidental or purposeful introduction).
Posted by: JFM   2008-10-09 12:35  

#9  I've seen photos of 200 lb cats taken from the Mississippi river in Missouri, back in the 1920's. There were NO reports of them ever trying to eat people though....
Posted by: Scooter McGruder   2008-10-09 12:18  

#8  Mutant Catfish Attack!

Women, Minorities hardest hit.
Posted by: Tranquil Mechanical Yeti   2008-10-09 12:10  

#7  Distant memories can be wrong. It was size who was 2m50 (over eight feet). Weight is "only" 120kg (270 lb).
Posted by: JFM   2008-10-09 12:05  

#6  In France we have catfish weighing from 200 to 250kg (450 to 550 kilograms).
Posted by: JFM   2008-10-09 11:51  

#5  On occasion a fisherman will pull a 100lb cat out of the Ohio river. I don't know what the record is, but 100lb is fairly good sized. I never saw anything bigger than about 40lb when I was diving for a living.
Posted by: bigjim-ky   2008-10-09 11:27  

#4  Big Jim,
I don't know about Kentucky, but we don't get catfish that size up here. (Texas is a whole other story)

Posted by: Frozen Al   2008-10-09 11:17  

#3  There is a pond in front of the Phoenix zoo, with large catfish that were there when it was a fish hatchery in the 1930s. Food dispensers on the bridge over the pond allowed people to feed the ducks below, and also the catfish, which kept getting bigger.

Eventually the pond had to be subdivided down its length by a chain link fence, with the catfish on one side and the ducks on the other, as the catfish developed a taste for duck.

But the very big catfish are found in the dam lakes, where they rest on the bottom near the dam, and food literally rolls downhill. Body recovery divers started noticing pieces of cadavers had been torn off.

One diver got the bends after surfacing too rapidly, after meeting one of these giants unexpectedly.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2008-10-09 11:17  

#2  More likely it is a cover story for why rival clansmen are disappearing and turning up in the river. It looks like a regular catfish to me.
Something is fishy here.
Posted by: bigjim-ky   2008-10-09 10:31  

#1  Since catfish are eating peole just release some specimens of their natural predator. Crocodiles.
Posted by: JFM   2008-10-09 10:15  

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