Lion fish

Ok, this has been bothering me for a while so I will ask:

--You read that lionfish have few natural predators and have poisonous spines.

--People spear lionfish and feed them to groupers, eels, etc.

So what happens to the grouper? Do the spines hurt the grouper?

It seems like the first two sentences are somewhat counter to each other if the poisonous spines keep away predators.

From my understanding it's that we got fish that have counterparts in the Lionfish's native range that are its natural predators, the problem is our fish don't recognize it as prey. Again, not sure if it is true, but is my understanding.

I know a guy who has been pricked by lion fish that were alive and dead. He tells me the alive hit was the most awful pain. The pricks from the dead ones are not too bad. I think the predators know the difference. They seem to watch carefully before they hit them.

He tells me the alive hit was the most awful pain. The pricks from the dead ones are not too bad.

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Speculation: perhaps the dead ones don't inject much venom? I don't know whether the mechanism to do that requires any conscious effort by the lionfish.

This is important, since I imagine a number of divers feed wounded (but not dead) lionfish to predators. Wonder how that works out?

Richard.

I raised the same question and apparently fish don't have the same type of circulation as humans and therefore the poison does not spread around their body? If you think about it many fish are poisonous or carry defences but they still get eaten by other fish.

With regard to being barbed, I received a minute graze from a live lionfish and boy did it hurt but not excessively. Others I know had a proper barking and that is when you are in absolute agony for many hours and I have heard of cases having to go to hospital. Don't be fooled into thinking the poison is any less when they are dead, it is not, it's just people tend only to get passing barbs rather then full blown puncturing of the skin.


Moral is be very careful because it's when you are distracted that's when the buggers get their revenge. Still they are good eating so if it's on the menu try it.


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Lionfish have no natural predators in the Atlantic/Carribbean. I've been told that the large groupers in the indo-pacific (among other fish) regularly eat lionfish. "Our" goliath grouper just do not know what these funky fish are and don't recognize them as food.
one of my aussie diver buddies tells me that the lionfish seem to be regarded as a "spicy snack" by several species in their native waters.

drrich2:

Speculation: perhaps the dead ones don't inject much venom? I don't know whether the mechanism to do that requires any conscious effort by the lionfish.

This is important, since I imagine a number of divers feed wounded (but not dead) lionfish to predators. Wonder how that works out?

Richard.

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the lion fish does not inject venom. the venom is held in small slits in the spine that are covered by a thin layer of flesh. The venom would enter the system when the spine goes into the diver and the layer of flesh is pushed back exposing the venom to the diver.

The toxin must have evolved to defend the lion fish against something.

But then toxins can be very species specific. Turns out the American Oposum, or Possum as we say, is basically immune to the poisonous snakes in our area. One of their favorite foods are copperheads.