It appears to be genuinely real. However it can be duped! But what a fascinating find their. Could be natures grotesque mutilated fish from biochemical or radioactive invtervention. Personally I would not want to touch it or step within a hundred feet of it without a biochemical space suit on and darth vader-like mask to protect me from possible toxins. I'd snap a picture and burn it.

7A

[edit on 24-11-2006 by 7Ayreon]

My god. 646 pounds? I stand corrected.

Catfish obviously grow pretty darn big then. I remember seeing pics like this i thought fake.

They grow this big naturally?

Doesnt look like just a normal catfish to me. Where are the tail fin? Looks like some nasty creature to me, half catfish and half eel. No way i would eat it or touch it, catfish taste like mud

Yep Mekong Catfish have repeatedly been caught at the 500lb + size. Scary aint it. I know for a fact i wont be doin any skinny dippin in the mekong delta ever again.(Not like ive ever been there to do it)

Wonder if they let it go ? would be a few hundred years old that one and probably a prolific breeder.

As a child growing up in Jacksonville, we caught 100+ lbs. catfish in the Intra-Coastal waterway regularly. Talk about a chore to skin ! But, loved the eats.

Lex

Originally posted by cuda
No way i would eat it or touch it, catfish taste like mud

So... you'd rather eat mud than catfish? Exactly how do you know what mud tastes like?


That's a real catfish, called a Mekong Catfish. The live in teh Mekong River and grow so large due to the nutrient-laden silt and mud flowing in. They get huge.

They even eat babies.

Okay, maybe not that last part.

I heard down in kentucky lake close to the dam there are catfish that are the size of a small school bus, Some researchers went diving there to do some research, they came right back up sacred to death saying they seen catfish so big they couldnt move. they just sit at the bottom of that dam lol.. It made the local news here yrs ago, rather its true or not who knows

My favorite show wild boys show chris and steveo holding up a live catfish and it was pretty huge

I wanna say this one is 6 foot maybe 8 the diver pets it so you can get some kind of idea of its size

Thats a good find! I didn't know catfish got that big!

There's a river called the Trinity river here in Texas...that is rumored to have some big,big fish in it.

Anyway, the story is that years and years ago,when the state first put a bridge between Trinity,Texas and Riverside, the first crew they sent down to do the job refused to do it. When asked why. Several of the workers reported that there were fish laying on the river bottom the size of volks wagons. I don't know how true it is, but that is the story.

Mekong and Amazon catfish (Any tropical variety really) get just gigantic. I saw a picture of guys trying to row their two seater rowboat somewhere in southern asia with a catfish so large the boat was almost capsizing. Sturgeon get rediculusly large too. I think they are both like snakes where as they don't have any real gene to stop their growth. Alligators have the same thing too. The more they eat the bigger. Tropical rivers must have some seriously nutritious run off cause what ever is in the water over there makes them huge..