NL·0694Herbarium of the Nature Library
- Name
- Pterois volitans
- Family
- Scorpaenidae
- Native to
- Western Pacific and eastern Indian Ocean; invasive in the western Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico
- Habitat
- Coral reef, Rocky reef, Seagrass
Red lionfish
Pterois volitans
Also calledPez león (Spanish) · Hana-minokasago (Japanese) · Ikan lepu (Indonesian) · Poisson-scorpion (French) · Turkeyfish
A flamboyant, zebra-striped reef predator with venomous fin spines. Released from aquaria in Florida, it became one of the fastest and most damaging marine invasions known, spreading across the Caribbean in two decades.
The red lionfish is a venomous coral reef fish in the family Scorpaenidae, order Scorpaeniformes. It is mainly native to the Indo-Pacific region, but has become an invasive species in the Caribbean Sea, as well as along the East Coast of the United States and East Mediterranean and also found in Brazil at Fernando de Noronha. Wikipedia
What it can do
- iDorsal, pelvic and anal spines deliver a painful venom
- iiHerds small fish into corners with fanned pectoral fins
- iiiBlows jets of water at prey to disorient it before striking
- ivFemales can release egg masses every few days year-round in warm waters
In the field
Field marks
- aBold red-brown and white vertical stripes
- bLong, feathery separated dorsal spines
- cHuge fan-like pectoral fins
- dFleshy tentacles above the eyes
- eSpotted second dorsal, anal and tail fins
- Not to be confused with
- Devil firefish (P. miles) is nearly identical, with usually 10 vs 11 dorsal soft rays and 6 vs 7 anal soft rays, and is the invader in the Mediterranean; both are invasive in the Atlantic. Clearfin lionfish (P. radiata) has white stripes on clear fins.
- Where to see it
- Native: Indonesia, Philippines, Great Barrier Reef. Invasive: Florida Keys, Bahamas, Belize, Honduras reefs
- When
- Year-round
Life & habits
- Diet
- Small reef fish and shrimp
- Habitat
- Reefs, wrecks, mangroves and hard-bottom down to 300 m
- Size
- Up to about 38–47 cm
- Lifespan
- Up to about 15 years
Hovers motionless with fins spread, then lunges with a rapid suction strike; often hunts at dawn and dusk.
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Native range
Western Pacific and eastern Indian Ocean; invasive in the western Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Pterois volitans in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
Marginalia
Florida and Caribbean islands hold lionfish derbies where divers spear thousands in a day; the first Atlantic sighting was off Dania Beach, Florida in 1985.
Curiosity
Early mitochondrial DNA studies suggested the Atlantic invasion began with as few as about ten fish, although later modelling (Selwyn et al. 2017) put the most likely number of founders at around a hundred or more.
Kinship
Fact-checked: 1 correction made to this sheet. Photographs: iNaturalist contributors under the licences shown. Records: GBIF.org. Historical plates: Source Library (CC BY-SA 4.0; originals public domain). Summary text: Nature Library editors and Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Medicinal and edibility notes are historical and educational, not advice. iNaturalist taxon 47280.