A catfish ate my Dachshund !!!

[Jools]

Oddly Enough - Reuters

Legendary Dog-Eating Catfish Dies
Fri Jul 25,10:10 AM ET

BERLIN (Reuters) - A giant catfish that ate a dog and terrorized 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 five-foot-long catfish weighing 77 pounds this week, a spokesman 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.

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.

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Thanks to Stephen for emailing this to me and Christian who mentioned it elsewhere.

Jools

[RogerMcAllen]

I read that yesterday and was going to post it here. What species of catfish was that? Here is a link to the story with a pic of the fish.http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-20 ... 9,,00.html

[S. Allen]

wow, that picture's amazing... how'd they make a dacshund cute?

[Sid Guppy]

the article says it's likely to have died from old age...

I have my doubts!
Siluris glanis gets a loooot bigger than that, and should be able to last as long as half a century, perhaps more. I think it was indeed all this swallowed lead and other stuff that finished him.

What should these people think about Pangasiodon spp wich can be caught by using a dead dog on a meathook?? And some of whom will likely feed on the remains of deceased people floating down the Gangus river in India....?

[coelacanth]

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.

I find it hard to imagine a better use for a dog, than to feed a Catfish.