Is the colour Odd ? ..

[Wantonmien]

Hi all,

A week back, in Philippines toward end of a dive spotted a yellow shape and on closer inspection for sure it's a dwarf lionfish, but is the yellow colouring abnormal ?

Strobe wasn't perfectly angled - but you can see in second photo it was laying quite close to a normal coloured lion fish, but yellow fins on a lion fish is a first for me ? Also would not say it was a juvenille, as the 'yellow finned' would have been at least 100mm (4 inch) long.

So is a yellow finned dwarf lion fish common or a 'one off' ?

 

[smellzlikefish]

Where was this shot taken? Here in Hawaii we have two types of lionfish (I guess the purists will call one a lionfish and the other a turkeyfish but they look similar). One comes from the genus Dendrochirus and the other Pterois. Our Dendrochirus sp. tends to be more brownish like your yellow finned friend. Our Pterois is endemic, but is more similar to the red fish at the bottom in your picture.

 

[Sully3]

they are both dwarf lionfish. They come in a couple different colors including yellow. cool looking fish!

 

[Wantonmien]

smellzlikefish - Shot was taken just across water from Mactan Cebu, at "Talima Marine Sancturay, Olango Island", Good dive site with a small wreck perched on the edge of a deep reef wall. I'm sorting out all the pics from Mactan dives and will upload post some later in Philippine section of forum, as I made a trip to "MoalBoal" and "Mactan" first week December.

Nothing spectacular, but a nice couple of days diving, and allready uploaded some of the shots from "MoalBoal" here http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ph...alboal-december-2-4-2010-some-pics-words.html - with link to albums on there.


sully3 - First 'Yellow' one I've ever seen, but for sure a cool variation - and well camouflaged.

cheers

 

[Vie]

So is a yellow finned dwarf lion fish common or a 'one off' ?

Not a "one off" but rare.

See: Allen, Steene, Humann & DeLoach's "Reef Fish Identification: Tropical Pacific," page 369 (includes very good but small pic of the yellow variation).

"Shortfin Lionfish - Yellow Variation

"ID: Usually shades of red to brown, but on rare occasion bright yellow."

Note: book uses "shortfin lionfish" as common name (instead of "dwarf lion fish") for Dendrochirus brachypterus.