Worlds Friendliest Snapper

[kentmorrdave]

gettin' ready to tear this lion fish up. Haha, I love it
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_wCobX3IzWRk/TXFDD49DVrI/AAAAAAAAjiw/YQqk2Xsbu-s/s640/IMG_0332.JPG

[Brules]

So does he have it's tail in his mouth? And is the kill/feed method working to encourage the eating of the little pests? Or just giving free meals to the fish?

[Mighty Mouse]

It seems to be starting to help. I have yet to see another fish or creature try to eat a lion fish with out it being wounded but I have had some friends tell me that they have seen this happen. It is interesting to see what animals are interested and which ones don't. Sometimes you can be diving and you'll have a fish following you thru out the dive just waiting for that lion fish to be caught so they can get a free meal. This is something that we do want to watch carefully so that the fish don't become dependent on us (that will be tough part to measure when we can stop and see what nature does). Interesting fact Bull Sharks are not interested in eating lion fish

[ggunn]

It seems to be starting to help. I have yet to see another fish or creature try to eat a lion fish with out it being wounded but I have had some friends tell me that they have seen this happen. It is interesting to see what animals are interested and which ones don't. Sometimes you can be diving and you'll have a fish following you thru out the dive just waiting for that lion fish to be caught so they can get a free meal. This is something that we do want to watch carefully so that the fish don't become dependent on us (that will be tough part to measure when we can stop and see what nature does). Interesting fact Bull Sharks are not interested in eating lion fish

You may be able to alter the feeding habits of a few individual fish a bit, but I don't think humans are going to create a predator base for lionfish by killing a few of them and feeding them to groupers.

[Mossman]

You may be able to alter the feeding habits of a few individual fish a bit, but I don't think humans are going to create a predator base for lionfish by killing a few of them and feeding them to groupers.
Nope. The only sure way to exterminate a species is to get humans interested in eating them.

[Mighty Mouse]

All though we may not be able to create a predator for the lion fish it could in the future help. A species as this one is we will never be rid of so if we have even just a few fish helping to control the population the better for us. Also on a very long term you don't know what might happen geneticaly if it just might become a natural habit for not these fish but there xxxxx generation down the road from now. The issue involved in feeding these fish is to not have them become dependent on us.

[BTravlin]

He is a friendly one!

http://www.scubaboard.com/gallery/data/3020/medium/IMG_08231.JPG
http://www.scubaboard.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/94343

[ggunn]

All though we may not be able to create a predator for the lion fish it could in the future help. A species as this one is we will never be rid of so if we have even just a few fish helping to control the population the better for us. Also on a very long term you don't know what might happen geneticaly if it just might become a natural habit for not these fish but there xxxxx generation down the road from now. The issue involved in feeding these fish is to not have them become dependent on us.
Nothing that humans can do is likely to make much of a difference in the lionfish population. They reproduce far more rapidly than we can kill them, and we can't go most of the places that they can go. Nature will find its own balance, eventually. We may or may not like it.

[Mighty Mouse]

I completly agree that nature will find it's own course and in many ways I believe that if humans would not interfer in trying to correct damages that we have caused that things in our nature could have different results. With that said I realize on this I am contradicting myself but although it may not "make much of a difference" it could create a small difference and that could be positive. I am happy to say in general for the majority of our shallower reefs you can dive and hardly see a lion fish thanks to everyone who has or is participating in cleaning out the lion fish also we are currently looking at arranging trips with in the dive operators to go to deeper sites to try and help in these areas as well, making a trip maybe twice a month to different deeper sites. Also our fisherman now are catching them since the fisherman union is now purchasing the lion fish from them.

[firstdive2005]

My how we share the pets at the reef. haha. I just get a huge kick out of the snappers. I wish there was a way for me to id the snappers to see if it's the same one every time that comes out of the blue to follow me at 5fts distance waiting patiently. I started to hit the lion fish so they are wounded and take them to the water column the snapper will get in front of it as it swims down and take it head first. Very cool to see as the lion fish is still so alive. I still have fun feeding an anemone or two. I cut the stingers off for the eels.
The big ones end up on my boat captains table at home. Sometimes we have a feast cooked up by Gabi at Palapita. That is some tasty fish I tell ya.

[Brules]

So in their native environment, what keeps them in check or is there a balance?

[ggunn]

So in their native environment, what keeps them in check or is there a balance?

In the Pacific (where they are native) they have naturally evolved predators, and they balance predation by prodigious reproduction. I don't know what their predators are, but it should be easy enough to look up. Human action has introduced them to the Atlantic, where they have few if any predators, and they still reproduce rapidly and in huge numbers. Hence the problem.

[Mighty Mouse]

My understanding is that the lion fishes natural predator are Coronet fish (they eat the juveniles) Sharks (I can't remember what kind) and Grouper.