My cursory research on the Wels Catfish reveals that it is found in Europe, but it is not in North America. Here is some information I found: The Wels Catfish is native to wide areas of central, southern, and eastern Europe, and near the Baltic and Caspian Seas. It has been introduced to Western Europe and is now found from the United Kingdom all the way east to Kazakhstan and south to Greece. 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 catfishes; the larger ones also eat frogs, mice, rats, and aquatic birds such as ducks. Recently, individuals of this species in environments that are not their native habitats have been observed lunging out of the water to grab pigeons on land. With a possible total length up to 13 ft and a maximum weight of over 880 lb it is the second largest freshwater fish in its region after the beluga sturgeon. However, such lengths are extremely rare and could not be proved during the last century, but there is a somewhat credible report from the 19th century of a wels catfish of this size. Most wels catfish are only about 4 ft – 5 ft long; fish longer than 6 1/2 ft are normally extremely rare. At 5 ft they can weigh over 35 lb and at 7 ft, they can weigh 143 lb. Only under exceptionally good living circumstances can the wels catfish reach lengths of more than 6 1/2 ft, as with the record wels catfish of Kiebingen (near Rottenburg, Germany), which was a little over 8 ft long and weighed 196 lb. This giant was surpassed by some even larger specimens from Poland, Ukraine, France, Spain (in the River Ebro), Italy (in the Po River and Arno River), and Greece, where this fish was released a few decades ago. Greek wels grow well thanks to the mild climate, lack of competition, and good food supply. Exceptionally large specimens are rumored to attack humans in rare instances, a claim investigated by extreme angler Jeremy Wade in an episode of the Animal Planet television series River Monsters following his capture of three fish, two of about 145 lb and one of about 160 lb, of which two attempted to attack him following their release. A report in the Austrian newspaper Der Standard on 5 August 2009, mentions a wels catfish dragging a fisherman near Győr, Hungary, under water by his right leg after the man attempted to grab the fish in a hold. The man barely escaped with his life from the fish, which must have weighed over 220 lb, according to the fisherman. Edited from: Wels catfish – Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wels_catfish#Size