What is this fish?

[Terry Pinnell]

I took this long distance photo of someone landing a large fish from
the River Arno in Florence, Italy in April.
Loading Image...

I'm curious; can anyone identify the species please? Is it a VERY large
pike? (My best ever pike, from a UK gravel pit, was about 11 lbs. Slightly
smaller than my best ever barbel at 11¾ lbs. Both several decades ago!)

[Pepperoni]

Post by Terry Pinnell
I took this long distance photo of someone landing a large fish from
the River Arno in Florence, Italy in April.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4019461/Fish-Arno.JPG
I'm curious; can anyone identify the species please? Is it a VERY
large pike? (My best ever pike, from a UK gravel pit, was about 11
lbs. Slightly smaller than my best ever barbel at 11Ÿ lbs. Both
several decades ago!)

The wels catfish (Silurus glanis), also called sheatfish, is a large
catfish found in wide areas of central, southern, and eastern Europe,
and near the Baltic and Caspian Seas. It is a scaleless fresh and
brackish water fish recognizable by its broad, flat head and wide mouth.
Wels catfish can live for at least thirty years and have very good
hearing.

The wels catfish lives on annelid worms, gastropods, insects,
crustaceans, and fish including other wels catfishes; the larger ones
also eat frogs, mice, rats and aquatic birds such as ducks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wels_catfish