Fish ID - Lion Fish??

[adjuster-jd]

I previously posted some notes about my dive at Airport Beach and the interesting life we saw there. I'm a little weak on my ID of Hawaiian fish (for that matter all fish).

Here is a photo of a fish I saw which I though was a Hawaiian lion fish - but I'm really not sure what it was. I saw a bunch of these all in the same head of coral.
Any help on exactly what this was?

 

[justleesa]

I think (don't have my book with me) it is a Coral Scorpionfish

 

[adjuster-jd]

Awww, I was hoping these were lions, but Oh well, they were pretty anyway....
I have posted pics of a bunch of my photos from this trip in a little easier site to view.
http://www.teleis.com/maui07/maui-photos.htm

 

[justleesa]

I thought you had a lion fish in one of your other pics.....have to go look again


Oh and the pic that you have titled yellow frog fish is actually a leaf scorpion (unless I'm over looking something).

 

[H2Andy]

i'm not sure what that is, but it is not a lionfish

lionfish are very distinctive

 

[justleesa]

we have two different kinds of lion fish...and both are endemic to Hawaii

The green one is pretty small, about 2.5-3" and the other one, with spines, about the size of a softball.

 

[H2Andy]

nice ... our lionfish here in florida are exotics... basically someone dumped one from an aquarium and they managed to survive

 

[justleesa]

They are very cool...saw tons of them in the red sea......are they messing the eco system there in any way?

 

[H2Andy]

well, not yet ... they don't seem to be reproducing fast enough

so let's keep our fingers crossed

 

[ScubaSeanMaui]

It's a Speckled Scorpionfish. They live in Antler Coral. The Lionfish are about 2 times the size which is still pretty small...


Sean