Pacific lionfish

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pacific lionfish
Pacific lionfish (Pterois volitans)

Pacific lionfish ( Pterois volitans )

Systematics
Order : Perch-like (Perciformes)
Subordination : Scorpionfish relatives (Scorpaenoidei)
Family : Scorpionfish (Scorpaenidae)
Subfamily : Lionfish (Pteroinae)
Genre : Pterois
Type : Pacific lionfish
Scientific name
Pterois volitans
( Linnaeus , 1758)

The Pacific lionfish ( Pterois volitans ) belongs to the subfamily of the lionfish . It lives in the Pacific Ocean between Malaysia and Japan and is up to 38 centimeters tall. Its habitat are lagoons and outer reefs . Because of its conspicuousness, it is often kept in show aquariums. Since the end of the 20th century it has also been observed as an invasive species in the western North Atlantic from the Florida coast to North Carolina , where it was released by aquarists.

behavior

The lionfish is active at night, and during the day it often hides under overhangs. At night he goes to catch prey by driving his prey (fish and crabs) with his pectoral fins and then sucking them in at lightning speed (suckers). The Pacific lionfish are not shy and often swim towards divers, but they are not aggressive.

Poison

The prickly rays of its dorsal fin contain a strong poison that is found in a skin secretion on the spines. Lionfish do not have a venom gland and the spines do not have a venom duct.

The poison causes extreme pain locally, sometimes with radiation to the entire affected extremity, local swellings, local necroses , local paresthesias possibly extending to the entire affected extremity . Other symptoms are blistering , anxiety, nausea, vomiting, sweating, dyspnoea , thoracic pain, abdominal pain, impaired consciousness, high blood pressure, collapsing to syncope , reddening of the face, headache, disorientation. There are no recorded deaths from a lionfish sting. As a countermeasure, the Pressure / Immobilization Technique and symptomatic treatment are recommended.

A large portion of lionfish injuries affect aquarists.

Demarcation

The distinction from the Indian lionfish ( Pterois miles ) 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.

Individual evidence

  1. Abundance estimates of the Indo-Pacific lionfish Pterois volitans / miles complex in the Western North Atlantic , Biological Invasions, Volume 9, Number 1, February 2006, accessed March 8, 2012.
  2. Marc Kochzius, Rainer Söller u. a .: Molecular phylogeny of the lionfish genera Dendrochirus and Pterois (Scorpaenidae, Pteroinae) based on mitochondrial DNA sequences. In: Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 28, 2003, p. 396, doi : 10.1016 / S1055-7903 (02) 00444-X .

literature

  • Baensch, Patzner: Sea water atlas. 1st edition. Volume 6, Non-Perch-like. Mergus Verlag, Melle 1999, ISBN 3-88244-116-X .

Web links

Commons : Pacific Lionfish ( Pterois volitans )  - Collection of images, videos and audio files