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Sheatfish or Catfish
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The Sheatfish or Catfish, Siluris glanis. This specimen was caught by Adrian Gheorghe in the Jiu River, Romania, in 1989. It was 2 metres long and weighed 40 Kg.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
Dr Gheorghe has kept all the "arm" bones of the Sheatfish he has caught in the Jiu. The largest such bone is 12 cm long, and came from a fish 2 m long and 40 kg in weight. It is thought the bone may be used to stiffen the fin for digging in the mud of the river bottom looking for food.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
The fish bones shown here were from fish caught within a month by Dr Gheorghe and a friend of his, Mitica Arpezeanu din Tintareni/Gorj. The fish mostly weighed between 40 kg to 25 kg, with one of 2 kg weight. The lengths were between 2 m and 1.5 m, and the small fish was 30 cm long.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
Fishing on the Clisura Dunarii, part of the Iron gates gorge, at a point 40 km west of Orsova.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 9th September 2007
The Catfish, or Sheatfish, Siluris glanis, is the largest fish in the fresh waters of Romania. It is a grey fish without scales, but its skin is protected by mucus.
Although it has bad eyesight, the feelers or whiskers combined with good smell allow it to find food on the muddy river bottom.
Because Oltenia Museum has the ability to verify the scientific importance of this information and because the specialists of Oltenia Museum have made contributions to this site, the copyrights to it are part of Oltenia Museum property.
If you have any photographs or information which would be useful for this site please contact Don Hitchcock
This page last modified Sunday, 13th July, 2008 03:57pm
