Lionfish Flare Their Fins to Hunt Together

[reefduffer]

Lionfish Flare Their Fins to Hunt Together ? News Watch

Won't make you any happier that they're here, but very interesting social behavior.

 

[Chugwhump]

They also flare if they feel threatened.
For about 1-5 seconds.
Then they swim like hell for about 6 feet.
And gasp for breathe.
And then swim away hard for 6 feet again.

Chug
Whakzem and eetszem.

 

[Mike]

I've seen numerous lion fish in the caribbean hunting prey, but I've never witnessed more than one together hunting they have always been solo. So maybe they do this, I don't know. Doesn't she have any video equipment?

 

[Chugwhump]

I've seen numerous lion fish in the caribbean hunting prey, but I've never witnessed more than one together hunting they have always been solo. So maybe they do this, I don't know. Doesn't she have any video equipment?

I dunno.....
But these guys did.
check out the 3:00' mark in this video.
You will see Lions commence pack hunting.
[video=youtube;jGhNcu532Ww]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGhNcu532Ww[/video]

Chug
Understands this wreck was scraped of Lions very shortly after this was taken.

 

[fire_diver]

Is that really pack hunting or just multiple fish chasing the same targets? I have watched a lot of fish feeding, and any time a single fish goes for something it triggers all the others to try to grab the same item.

 

[Chugwhump]

Is that really pack hunting or just multiple fish chasing the same targets?

Beats me.
I am typically too busy slamming steel into their heads to really observe careful scientific protocol in properly observing their hunting behavior.

But these people seem to have opinions.

Despite considerable study, mystery surrounds the use of signals that initiate cooperative hunting in animals. Using a labyrinth test chamber, we examined whether a lionfish, Dendrochirus zebra, would initiate cooperative hunts with piscine partners. We found that D. zebra uses a stereotyped flared fin display to alert conspecific and heterospecific lionfish species Pterois antennata to the presence of prey. Per capita success rate was significantly higher for cooperative hunters when compared with solitary ones, with hunt responders assisting hunt initiators in cornering the prey using their large extended pectoral fins. The initiators would most often take the first strike at the group of prey, but both hunters would then alternate striking at the remaining prey. Results suggest that the cooperative communication signal may be characteristic to the lionfish family, as interspecific hunters were equally coordinated and successful as intraspecific hunters. Our findings emphasize the complexity of collaborative foraging behaviours in lionfish; the turn-taking in strikes suggests that individuals do not solely try to maximize their own hunting success: instead they equally share the resources between themselves. Communicative group hunting has enabled Pteroine fish to function as highly efficient predators.
Lionfish predators use flared fin displays to initiate cooperative hunting


(Phys.org) —A trio of researchers working in Australia has found that lionfish use their fins to communicate with other lionfish as a means to instigate cooperative hunting. In their paper published in the journal Biology Letters, Oona Lönnstedt, Maud Ferrari and Douglas Chivers describe observations they made undersea around the Great Barrier Reef and in their lab.
Lionfish found to use flared fin display to instigate cooperative hunting


For the first time, scientists have documented how lionfish use their pointed, venomous fins to hunt prey together.
Lionfish Flare Their Fins to Hunt Together ? News Watch

Chug
Lion Fish in the Atlantic Basin serial Killer and flesh ingester.
(Is that a word?)