Great post from Wed and an eye candy and inspiration too.
Except that I think we ain't got the statistics to say whether the albinos are the same or inferior to regular wels in one way or another. Science says they cannot be the same because gene mutation never occurs alone. But whether it manifests itself in any significant or notable way for wels kept in captivity, we simply don't know.
For instance, perhaps, given everything equal, they live only 25-50 years instead of the regular 100-150. Or max out well under 10' instead of well over. We'd likely never know.
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Mine too strongly prefers pellets (cheap, commercial catfish farm type) to cut or whole fish or shrimp. I had read about that before but still was surprised to see ~100% resolve (unless starved well).
As for the tank size, since they love swimming, I'd go with the 6xL by 3xL footprint rule, where L = fish total length. Again, somewhat science-based. I've always recommended larger sizes (hence my name) than Wed. In reality, he is a better keeper and knows better what he is talking. Note we both do things on a shoestring. Pick your poison...