The lionfish’s body color and spines is just one of the many adaptations it has developed in relation to their environment. The distinctive appearance warns potential predators to stay away. Its grooved spines are equipped with venom which can cripple a predator.

Lionfish are found throughout coastal regions in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Lionfish live exclusively in shallower waters with a depth of less than 500 feet. They tend to stay around rugged terrain, like coral reefs or lagoons, that helps them ambush and corner their prey.

Scorpionfishes, including the red lionfish, earn their common name with their ability to defend themselves with a sting or stab from venom delivered via spines in their fins. The red lionfish have venomous spines in their dorsal, anal and pelvic fins.

Lionfish are good hunters. They don’t actually use their venomous spines to hunt. Once they are close to their prey they use their large pectoral fins to lunge at their prey and swallow it in a single bite.

Invasive lionfish threaten native fish and the environment in U.S. Atlantic coastal waters. Invasive species are capable of causing extinctions of native plants and animals, reducing biodiversity, competing with native organisms for limited resources, and altering habitats.

Eat Lionfish! Once stripped of its venomous spines, cleaned, and filleted like any other fish, the lionfish becomes delectable seafood fare.

“Mild, moist, buttery and very tender (definitely not the firmest of white fleshed fin fish). In a well-made ceviche, the Lionfish melts in your mouth, while the ‘butteriness’ balances well with the lime juice.” “In Ceviche it is rather firm and tastes like a cross between lobster and shrimp.

From our FAQ page, “Natural predators in the Indo-Pacific and Red Sea that are known to eat lionfish include sharks, cornetfish, grouper, large eels, frogfish and other scorpionfish. There is speculation that large snapper and some species of trigger fish eat lionfish in their native ranges as well.”

“Lionfish are tasty and safe to eat from most places,” explains Alison Robertson, a toxin researcher at the University of South Alabama, who lead the FDA’s investigation of ciguatera in lionfish. “[It’s] just that caution should be taken if any reef fish are collected from areas with a high risk.”

In southeast Asia, sharks, groupers and other predators help control their populations. In places like Cuba and Honduras, divers have recently been spearing lionfish and physically handing them over to sharks, in the hopes that sharks will acquire a predilection for lionfish flesh.

3, both recreational and commercial fishermen and women are encouraged to submit dead lionfish for cash prizes that range from $500 to $5,000. Find an FWC-tagged lionfish after signing up for the 2018 Lionfish Challenge and you could win up to $5,000 in cash.”

How To Kill A Lionfish

1. Find Lionfish.
2. Stab it with a spear.
3. Surface.
4. Eat (see recipe below).

Lionfish have no natural predators in their invasive range. We’re not entirely certain what eats lionfish in their native range, but it’s most likely large predators like grouper, snapper, eels and sharks.

Both attributes make them dangerous to coral reefs and to the species that inhabit them. Their appetite allows them to decimate the population of other reef fish and the venom stored in the tips of their needle-like dorsal fins makes them difficult for humans to hunt.

Here are the 5 best ideas for stopping the invasive lionfish.

1. Hunt Them! Divers Needed.
2. Eat Them! They taste like chicken.
3. Train Sharks to Eat Them! Yes this is a real thing.
4. Stop Importing Them! Ban lionfish as aquarium imports.
5. Smartphone App! Divers report sightings.

Lionfish Control in the National Marine Sanctuaries: A Study of Lionfish Aggregating Devices and Ciguatera Levels. The invasive lionfish is one of the most dominant top predators of reef communities in the temperate and tropical Atlantic Ocean.

The native marine species that lionfish are decimating are important for ecological, commercial, traditional and recreational reasons. Ecologically important species include the “grazers” and the “cleaners” that maintain the health of the reef and the health of other fish.

Lionfish are native to coral reefs in the tropical waters of the South Pacific and Indian Oceans.

They will eat almost any marine creature it can fit into its mouth, up to 2/3 of its own body size and include fish that are commercially important- juvenile snapper, grouper, flounder and other common “table fish;” recreationally important – juvenile billfish, mahi mahi, wahoo, jacks, tuna and other prized “game fish” …

Yes they will eat them, and yes a 10 gallon is way to small for two clowns.

“Lionfish sightings quickly spread throughout the Caribbean and then the Gulf of Mexico,” Schofield, who tracks non-native marine fish in U.S. waters, told Live Science. There are now breeding populations in the coastal waters of Venezuela, throughout the coastal Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico.

10 Compatible Lionfish Tank Mates

• Saltwater Angelfish are ideal tank mates for Lionfish because most of them are too large to be eaten and they eat entirely different foods.
• Tangs and Surgeonfish are colorful vegetarians that typically form large schools in nature.

A single lionfish is capable of consuming 80 percent of the young reef fish on small coral reefs within just five weeks of establishing its territory. Unfortunately, these abundant snacks happen to be commercially, recreationally and ecologically important.

In humans, lionfish stings cause intense pain and sweating, and in extreme cases, respiratory distress and paralysis. The intensity and duration of these effects depend on an individual’s sensitivity to the toxin and how many spines have stabbed them.

Lionfish release venom when their spine enters the skin of a predator or an unsuspecting person. Contact with lionfish can be dangerous, but they are not aggressive.

Not painful, but inconvenient, and somewhat amusing as the swelling acts as edema, and when you press it with your finger you leave a temporary dent in the skin. It’s the small amusements that are best. The official treatment for Lionfish stings is Hot Water.

Another common species such as the Devil Lionfish can retail for $27 to $65. Again, the length of the fish can greatly affect the price….On average, plan on spending anywhere from $15 to as much as $110 for the fish.