Lionfish question...

[sharky60]

...do we have more than one variety of lionfish on Coz?

Going through my photos from May, (yes, still at it), I see that some of the fish have white "plumage" fins and are basically red and white, these are Red Lionfish I assume. This is the variety I thought we had here all the time.

But we noticed diving and my photos confirm, that some of the fish appear to be more black with black fins?

All the Lion's we saw in May were juvies, so it's not that some are juveniles, and some are adults, I think either we have 2 types or diet is changing the color of some of them.

...just thought of this, is one a male and one a female?

 

[Prop Joe]

If you spear them they are easier to look at. I think they taste the same though.
Yes, I've noticed some more red than others. Sallye will know...

 

[cvchief]

Good question!!!

 

[BrewingDiver]

We saw a couple off the BA shore that were pretty much all black except with the normal white striping. They were pretty large so adults I assume. I do have a couple pics of them. Interested to hear the results.

 

[Nick A]

Yes, there are 2 species of lionfish, Pterois volitans and P. miles. P. Volitans is the red lionfish.

 

[ronski101]

using that old saying "THE ONLY GOOD LIONFISH IS A DEAD ONE OR ONE ON YOUR DINNER PLATE". Along with the mosquito, tsete fly, fire ant, funnel web spider, this planet could do without them. I can olty imagine what south pacific dive sites would be like without the lion fish.

 

[Mossman]

using that old saying "THE ONLY GOOD LIONFISH IS A DEAD ONE OR ONE ON YOUR DINNER PLATE". Along with the mosquito, tsete fly, fire ant, funnel web spider, this planet could do without them. I can olty imagine what south pacific dive sites would be like without the lion fish.

Huh?

South Pacific dive sites are just fine with lionfish and they wouldn't be much different without them. Before they invaded the Caribbean/Atlantic, they were rare enough that one would want to take a snapshot.

 

[DjDiverDan]

Huh?

South Pacific dive sites are just fine with lionfish and they wouldn't be much different without them. Before they invaded the Caribbean/Atlantic, they were rare enough that one would want to take a snapshot.

I understood that Lionfish were indigenous to Indonesian waters. Do they have any natural predators in the South Pacific that keep their population in check?

 

[Nick A]

They're native to the red sea, indian ocean, south Pacific. Sharks and parasites keep them in check over there, and I would assume that there's a few other fish that prey on them as well.

 

[Dave Dillehay]

The Dive Masters I have talked about this in the Philippines tell me that Stonefish eat the little ones but that once they get big nothing eats them. That squares with my observation there where that I never saw small ones, only big ones of several different varieties. I don't dive as much as I used to but have only seen red ones in Coz. I would be very interested to see photos of other colors in Coz as I thought they all (red ones) came from one aquarium in Florida.

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers