I was watching a video about white-tip reef sharks and they are a perfect reef predator at night. They can detect the slightest muscle movement of fish hiding on the reef so I was wondering if they also eat lionfish. It seems that lionfish would be easy prey for white-tip reef sharks because they are slow and white-tip reef sharks swim through all the nooks and crannies searching for prey. There are no white-tip reef sharks in the Caribbean so that might be why there are high numbers in the Caribbean? Just a thought.
Maybe white-tip reef sharks control lionfish in the Indo-pacific?
- Thread starter b-dog
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bracko
Contributor
err... as I understand it, the reason why there are "kill lion fish" campaigns and why there have been efforts to get sharks to eat them in the west is because they aren't native to the Caribbean Sea and surrounding waters.
they are native to the Indo-Pacific, hence humans would be actively changing the natural ecosystem, something that's done alright for millions of years without humans trying to "control" it.
they are native to the Indo-Pacific, hence humans would be actively changing the natural ecosystem, something that's done alright for millions of years without humans trying to "control" it.
I don't think I have ever seen it mentioned but, in the Indo-Pacific where they are native; what are the Lion Fishes natural predators? What keeps them in check over there?
Not sure if white tips prey on lionfish in the Indo Pacific, but groupers and their relatives do. The problem in the Caribbean is that the groupers and relatives there haven't historically been exposed to lionfish, and don't see them as prey, so the lionfish propagate freely as they vacuum the reefs clean of small fish.
AfterDark
Contributor
Judging by the this thread I'm guessing it's safe to say no study has been done on what does control the lionfish population in its native habitant?
Why not?
---------- Post added January 13th, 2014 at 01:20 PM ----------
As cruel as it is maybe the thing to do is to spear the LF and let it swim around wounded. Any wounded fish is prey to a predator.
Why not?
---------- Post added January 13th, 2014 at 01:20 PM ----------
As cruel as it is maybe the thing to do is to spear the LF and let it swim around wounded. Any wounded fish is prey to a predator.
All I can say is that there is nothing in the Caribbean like the white-tip reef shark. These sharks hunt in packs at night swimming through every nook and cranny to find sleeping fish. These are the areas where lionfish hide so they must eat at least some of them. Other sharks and groupers never make their way through the inner parts of the reef like the the white-tips do so the chance of them finding lionfish has got to be a lot lower than white-tips.
There are lots of lionfish in places other than shallow reefs. We see them on our offshore wrecks. So it takes a variety of predators.
It does seem kind of odd that every article I read says we have no natural predators to deal with them but never go on to say what their natural predators are in their native waters.
BVickery
Contributor
I do think a big key in getting the native population of fish to view lionfish as food is tantamount of the fish to associate the fish on its own as food, not because a diver feeds it to them.
Ayisha
Contributor
Here are some natural predators of lionfish in the Indo-Pacific and Red Sea:
Lionfish Facts: Frequently Asked Questions About Invasive Lionfish : The World Lionfish Hunters Association
When we hear that lionfish have no natural predators outside of those waters, it's because those sharks, grouper, eels, frogfish, scorpionfish, etc. haven't adapted to eating them or recognizing them as prey.
Lionfish Facts: Frequently Asked Questions About Invasive Lionfish : The World Lionfish Hunters Association
When we hear that lionfish have no natural predators outside of those waters, it's because those sharks, grouper, eels, frogfish, scorpionfish, etc. haven't adapted to eating them or recognizing them as prey.
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