Scorpion fish behavior

[rabe]

Yesterday I saw something weird (in about 20 meter of water, on the deck of the ex-HMAS Brisbane): one (bigger) scorpion fish had the head of a (smaller) scorpion fish inside is mouth.
It wasn't doing anything: no moving, or trying to eat it.
On the other hand, the smaller one, was just in there, inside the mouth, not moving or trying to escape.
I observed them for a couple of minutes, and they just rested like that...
5 minutes later, I came back to check, and they were still in the same spot: now the smaller one was outside the mouth of the bigger one, and they were just looking each other in the eyes...
At some point, the smaller one took off, with a cute little sprint, and the big one followed it...
Is that a normal behaviour? I couldn't find anything online...

 

[Pearlman]

Big Daddy playing with lil baby? Maybe they have a life we don't know about yet ..

 

[rabe]

...and the safe word is Jellyfish

 

[RyanT]

It's common for predatory fish to attempt to eat another fish that is a bit too big to fit down their gullet. The large fish will sometimes be reluctant to let the smaller one go. They may both struggle for a while and get tired. Sometimes the big one may even just quietly hold the small one in it's jaws for a while before it gives up. From your description, it sounds like what happened here.

 

[chris kippax]

Was it a Stone fish or a Scorpion fish. I have never seen a Stonefish on the mag deck or at all on the Brisbane but have seen numerous scorpion fish.
Not sure about this behaviour sounds quite interesting though.

 

[rabe]

Was it a Stone fish or a Scorpion fish. I have never seen a Stonefish on the mag deck or at all on the Brisbane but have seen numerous scorpion fish.
Not sure about this behaviour sounds quite interesting though.

Damn, you're right!
They were two Scorpion fish...

 

[chris kippax]

Damn, you're right!
They were two Scorpion fish...

All good, a very common mix up.
I have found several stonefish in the Moololah river and even 2 x Hairy Frogfish

 

[rabe]

All edited!
Yes indeed, they are very easy to mix...