Lionfish how many?

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claplant

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Are the lionfish common in the red sea? are there a lot of them or are they rare?

They are part of my "must see" list.
 
Then come to the Red Sea...

They are very common, and some consider them a nuisance. For example, they tend to group with divers during night dives and exploit the diver's torch lights in order to surprise fish and hunt them :wink:

You can expect to see plenty of them. Duh!
 
Hi,

Lion fish is common in Mabul Malaysia. I love Lion Fish.
but I plan to red sea as well. Please tell me about Rea sea dive sit and accommodation.
Hong Kong to Read sea is pretty far, I need to know the destination before go and tell me which month is the best season.
Cheer
Jason
 
Yeah, I agree with the above – in 19 trips to the Red Sea, I have yet to do a dive where I didn't see at least one! And on a night dive, you can have fun by seeing how many you can get to follow your buddy – just swim near him and turn your torch off, all your lionfish will then migrate to his torch and you can swim off. Turn yours back on, collect some more and repeat. I think I got nearly 12 on mine once!

Mind you, as I am always getting told by my marine biologist friend, the actual name of the fish is question is 'turkeyfish', as the name 'lionfish' was already used for another, completely different species of fish (some type of goby, or something). However, people the world over refer to them as lionfish, so I guess it is here to stay. One of the main species in the Red Sea is the Military turkeyfish, which just sounds bizarre!

Mark
 
Agreed... you'll definitely see 'em in the Red Sea. During the day, they pretty much huddle under dark reef overhangs, in groups of two or three. But they come out to hunt at night, and do like to follow lights. Weird how they swim. Can be unnerving, until you learn how to "play" with them using your light.
 
Thank you all, so it shouldn't be a problem to observe them. Now what I would like to know is there distribution in the water column? I've read an article that state that they are found mostly between 80-300 feet deep, but this is on the US east cost. Is this also the case in the red sea?
 
No, not the case at all. I have seen lionfish down on the Rosalie Moller at 48m, and others around the top of a reef near Tiran in less than 3m, so you don't need to get down to 24m or above to see them in Egypt. The little buggers are everywhere!

Don't forget to look for their cousins as well, the stonefish and the scorpionfish!

Mark
 
claplant:
Thank you all, so it shouldn't be a problem to observe them. Now what I would like to know is there distribution in the water column? I've read an article that state that they are found mostly between 80-300 feet deep, but this is on the US east cost. Is this also the case in the red sea?

They are everywhere, even lurking near the surface.
In Israel and Egypt there are two species of lionfish (clearfin Lionfish and common Lionfish) - both are very common- it is hard to have a dive without seeing several. Other relatives are very common too, such as scorpionfish, stonefish etc.

But hey- they are not the main attraction in the Red Sea :05: So you can be sure that when you come to the area you'll pretty soon find the Lionfish to be... common :wink:
 

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