Indian lionfish
| Indian lionfish | ||||||||||||
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Lionfish ( Pterois miles ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Pterois miles | ||||||||||||
| Bennett , 1828 |
The lionfish ( Pterois miles ) is common in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean . As an invasive species, it is also found on the North American east coast and in the Caribbean . In the meantime he has also immigrated through the Suez Canal into the south-eastern Mediterranean ( Lesseps migration ). The species has colonized almost the entire southeast coast of Cyprus within a year (as of 2016). It penetrates to a depth of 50 meters. At night and at dusk he hunts for fish and crabs. During the day the lionfish retreats into caves and under large coral sticks.
The lionfish has a laterally flattened body with extremely long fin rays on the front dorsal fin and pectoral fins. The color of the body is red-brown with white transverse lines.
Its spiky rays of the dorsal fin contain a strong poison , which leads to painful injuries. However, his behavior is not aggressive.
The nocturnal animals can best be observed by snorkelers and divers at night and just before sunset.
Demarcation
The distinction from the Pacific lionfish ( Pterois volitans ) was classically made using the eye spots that are characteristic of the Indian variant. However, since this color pattern occurs in juvenile animals in both oceans and fades more and more with age, the existence of two species has been questioned by some authors. However, recent molecular analyzes have shown that the two lionfish are at least genetically distinct populations that separated from 2.4 to 8.3 million years ago.
literature
- Robert A. Patzner, Horst Moosleitner, Hans A. Baensch : Non-Perciformes (non-perch-like), as well as butterfly and angelfish. Mergus, Melle 1999, ISBN 3-88244-116-X ( Sea Water Atlas. Volume 6).
Web links
- Indian lionfish on Fishbase.org (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Frank Scheidewind: Lionfish in Coral , No. 25
- ↑ voracious poisonous fish conquered the Mediterranean. Basler Zeitung, June 28, 2016, accessed on June 28, 2016 .
- ↑ Marc Kochzius, Rainer Söllerb, Maroof A. Khalafc, Dietmar Blohm: Molecular phylogeny of the lionfish genera Dendrochirus and Pterois (Scorpaenidae, Pteroinae) based on mitochondrial DNA sequences. In: Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. Volume 28, No. 3, September 2003 ( doi : 10.1016 / S1055-7903 (02) 00444-X ), pages 396-403