Lionfish in the Red Sea

[bvbellomo]

Recently went recreationally diving in Egypt and was told about the invasion of non-native lionfish taking over their reefs because they have no natural predators and are eating all the fish. There were a lot of lionfish present on all dive sites.

Before the trip, I expected lionfish and thought they were native to the Red Sea. After the trip, I confirmed Pterois miles on fishbase shows a native range in the Red Sea. I cannot tell the difference between P. volitans and P. miles, but I'd assume anything that eats P. miles can't either.

Am I misinformed? What is the real story here?

 

[WeRtheOcean]

Well, just from Wikipedia, I see that morays are predators of both species. I would be curious whether there really are invasive P. volitans in the Red Sea, or if an abundance of P. miles is being mistakenly identified as such. The same Wikipedia articles also said that lionfish are taking over the niches of certain overfished species, which could look like invasiveness. I would think that the presence of a very similar native species would make it more difficult for an invasive species to become established.

 

[JustSurfaceInterval]

For what it's worth: here's a link to all you ever wanted to know about Lionfishs...
As it looks like the "main" difference is in the number of dorsal or anal fin rays, i would agree that a natural predator in situ will not take time or does not have the skills to count these fins and have some thoughts whether he fancy one more or not.