Giant catfish gets weight check

One lucky visitor to Bolton Museum Aquarium has won a day behind the scenes for guessing the weight of the Aquarium's giant catfish, Fred.

Fred, an Oxydoras niger measuring about 90cm/36" in length, needed to be caught and transferred from his tank at the Aquarium so he could be moved into a plush new pad.

More than 600 children entered the competition to guess the weight of the catfish, and when the votes have been checked, one of them will win a day behind the scenes of the Aquarium.

Paul Dixon told thisislancashire: "The glass in Fred's tank is about 30 years old and has become badly scratched over the years, which makes it difficult to clean, so it is being replaced.

"Fred is certainly the biggest catfish I've seen. I think people will certainly be surprised about how much he actually does weigh."

The massive doradid catfish proved to be very heavy and tipped the scales at 22lbs 4oz.

Bolton Museum's Aquarium is one of the UK's oldest and has a reputation for its conservation work on rare fishes, such as the cichlids of Lake Barombi Mbo.