Lionfish Hunting Equipment

[MAKO Spearguns]

Barbless tines work best. The barbs tend to hold the fish on too well, so they sometimes don't release depending on the design of the containment unit.

True! We offer two different tip options, barbed and not.

Lion Fish 3 Prong Cluster Tip No Barbs for easy removal

The MAKO Spearguns Lion Fish 3 prong Cluster Tip is designed specifically for hunting and killing the invasive Lion Fish.

makospearguns.com

 

[Jafo19D]

True! We offer two different tip options, barbed and not.

Lion Fish 3 Prong Cluster Tip No Barbs for easy removal

The MAKO Spearguns Lion Fish 3 prong Cluster Tip is designed specifically for hunting and killing the invasive Lion Fish.

makospearguns.com

I ordered one from Mako. I’m having it shipped to my parents’ house here in VA. As long as it gets here by the 23rd I’m good.

 

[MAKO Spearguns]

I ordered one from Mako. I’m having it shipped to my parents’ house here in VA. As long as it gets here by the 23rd I’m good.

We ship from VA, so it should be there! thanks!

 

[PBcatfish]

I've been cutting off the spines, then stuffing the lion fish into the same bag that I use for everything else. That's a bit time consuming to do, but it works & it means that I can carry minimum equipment.

I considered getting a zoo keeper the other day. The prices have become acceptable. My concern with them is stuffing several in there at once may cause the spine from one to poke the filet of another & poison it. I do not know if this is a valid concern or not. Is the venom poisonous when eaten?

I firmly recommend using multi prong spear tips. The one time I got stung was when I used a single prong tip & the fish slid down the shaft as I was trying to throw the spear onto the boat. I agree with others that barbs are not needed on 3 prong "paralyzer" tips.

 

[Belzelbub]

I considered getting a zoo keeper the other day. The prices have become acceptable. My concern with them is stuffing several in there at once may cause the spine from one to poke the filet of another & poison it. I do not know if this is a valid concern or not. Is the venom poisonous when eaten?

I’ve never heard of anyone having a reaction in this way. If possible, the only risk I see is if you have lionfish sashimi or ceviche. But again, I don’t know if ingesting the venom would even be an issue.

Since heat destroys the venom (common first aid is to put the stung area near the water discharge from the engine), cooking the fish would destroy any venom present.

 

[macado]

My concern with them is stuffing several in there at once may cause the spine from one to poke the filet of another & poison it. I do not know if this is a valid concern or not. Is the venom poisonous when eaten?

Not an issue based on my experience and thousands of other people using Zookeepers for collection. The venom itself is not poisonous and will quickly become denatured especially when cooking or making ceviche. The venom denatures (breaks down) pretty quickly

Venomous is not really the same as poisoness. Venomous refers organisms that bite (or sting) to inject their toxins into blood stream whereas the poison applies toxins that you eat, or absorption through skin or inhalation. I am sure someone will come along and correct me shortly but that's my understanding.

Better information regarding this here: Lionfish Facts | The 10 Most Common Lionfish Myths Busted

Lionfish are not poisonous, they are venomous. The difference between poison and venom is the method of delivery. Venom must be injected into the bloodstream to cause injury, such as through a sharp spine or fang, but is harmless if drunk or eaten. Poison has to be ingested or absorbed to be harmful; lionfish carry no poison in the edible meat of the fish.

The venom found in the needle-sharp dorsal, pelvic and anal fins of a lionfish is NOT deadly to an otherwise healthy human being, though envenomation WILL cause an immense amount of localized pain, swelling and, in some instances, blistering and infection if not treated properly. It is possible for some people to have an allergic reaction to the venom, which comes with a host of potentially deadly complications resulting from anaphylactic shock, which could also be caused by any other serious allergy to bee stings or eating shellfish.

Lionfish fact: Lionfish venom is a protein-based, neuromuscular toxin that can be denatured when cooked over 350 degrees for just a short period of time. Heat breaks the proteins down, which is why soaking the affected area in very hot water is also an effective first aid treatment for lionfish stings.

Note, however, cooking lionfish is NOT required. They are NOT poisonous to eat and if you did consume the venom from the spines, nothing is likely to happen.

 

[macado]

Zookeepers (and other containment devices) are great tools when the quantity of lionfish you expect or hope to encounter is large. They're much faster (and safer) especially when cutting spines off at depth where narcosis could be an issue.

The downside to carrying a Zookeeper is increased drag if you're diving in an area with lots of current or if perhaps you only encounter 3 or 4 lionfish on a dive. That is why I dont carry one evey dive however if your goal is as many lionfish as possible then a Zookeeper or even 5 gallon bucket is much more efficient. You save a lot of time vs. trying to cut spines off at depth when you could be shooting more lionfish. This is especially important if you're trying to stay within no-decompression limits and you encounter large aggregation of lionfish at 100ft+ depths. Getting stung and having a deco obligation is a real bummer.

Having said that, I prefer using fish stringers if I dont expect to encounter a lot of lionfish (say maybe only 10-15). You can carefully cut spines off and put them on a stringer. I use larger vegetable / garden trimming shears.

 

[PBcatfish]

I’ve never heard of anyone having a reaction in this way. If possible, the only risk I see is if you have lionfish sashimi or ceviche. But again, I don’t know if ingesting the venom would even be an issue.

Since heat destroys the venom (common first aid is to put the stung area near the water discharge from the engine), cooking the fish would destroy any venom present.

I can tell you from personal experience that the fairy-tale about heat effectively denaturing the venom from a lionfish, or a gafsail catfish, is (suppressing urge to use truly foul language) not particularly effective. Water from the P-hole of an outboard did about zero for me & submerging the hand in a pot of water that was as hot as I could take it, gave little relief at best. That's the most polite way I could possibly describe the experiences I have had. The catfish sting was worse than the lionfish, but it was a much more forceful & deeper penetration of about 1.5" compared with about a 1/4" deep poke from the lion. I eventually had a complete recovery from the catfish. The end of my one finger is still numb, after a couple of years, from the sting of the lion. The area still affected is maybe 3/8" in diameter.

 

[macado]

Water from the P-hole of an outboard did about zero for me & submerging the hand in a pot of water that was as hot as I could take it, gave little relief at best. That's the most polite way I could possibly describe the experiences I have had. The catfish sting was worse than the lionfish, but it was a much more forceful & deeper penetration of about 1.5" compared with about a 1/4" deep poke from the lion. I eventually had a complete recovery from the catfish. The end of my one finger is still numb, after a couple of years, from the sting of the lion. The area still affected is maybe 3/8" in diameter.

I can sympathize; I've been stung a few times. The first time I was stung my reaction was minor, perhaps because the amount of venom that was injected was not significant. I had numbess and pain in my hand for a few days after but nothing major.

The second time was much worse and the hot water from the motor outboard did little to help. I could literally feel the pain and numbness moving up my hand. I dont recall how long it took for the pain to go away but I recall I started getting some relief after ~4 hours. My finger was partially numb for about a week. In both instances I put my hand in hot water to help denature the venom. I suspect maybe it would have much worse if I didnt do that.

Third time I got stung I immediately made the injection site bleed underwater and started sucking on my finger in an attempt to remove or slow the absorption of some of the venom. I had about a 10 minute deco obligaiton which I didnt find super pleasant. When I surfaced the pain in my finger finally turned to minor throbbing and discomfort. Minor numbness, swelling and pain for a day or so. I'm no expert and I don't know if this did anything beyond placebo but it seemed to work well for me.

 

[Vicko]

Heat has to be applied very rapidly, the venom defuses in the blood vessels fast and you won't be denaturing it once it's under a few cm of flesh. Also if you get stung somewhere that is rich in capillaries it won't help.