Lionfish are HERE

[tracydr]

They are native to the Indo-Pacific area and I believe possibly South Pacific also but not sure.

They were all over in Africa when I was there.

 

[Hetland]

Glen:

Just repeating what I had read somewhere. To be clear, I understood the INITIAL appearance of the species in the Atlantic was due to aquarium releases (plural) and that the spread was the natural consequence.

Your opinion on the subject is good enough for me though.

 

[GLENFWB]

Sorry Hetland, many like myself who have been involved in the aquarium trade for years, get defensive about the subject. People with aquariums become the easy target. Many researchers think the most probable origin of the species along the Atlantic are that eggs or juveniles were transported in the ballast of ships. It accounts for how a large enough numbers of fish were transported to establish the species. This is how many evasive species have been introduced. (although I suspect people in the shipping industry will take issue with that also. :~) ) There is also the story of the aquarium or hatchery in South Florida that was destroyed during hurricane Andrew.

I know we will never know how they got started...Hetland if they keep moving north, let's just put a hunting trip together and go get the critters. Although I suspect they wont survive the northern Gulf throughout the winter.

Glen:

Just repeating what I had read somewhere. To be clear, I understood the INITIAL appearance of the species in the Atlantic was due to aquarium releases (plural) and that the spread was the natural consequence.

Your opinion on the subject is good enough for me though.

 

[pro99line]

First let me state that I have been in the reef tank hobby for may years. While it is not probably the single most cause of the Lionfish invasion, people do release them from their tanks when they get too large or when they get tired of them. Considering the female lays 2,000-15,000 eggs at a time and they have no real natural predators here other than large groupers and possibly sharks, it is possible that they add to the problem. The public aquarium that was damamged in Hurricane Andrew released like 6 if I remember correctly. I am sure the problem is not probably from one source but a combination of being brought in with ships, public aquarium release that happened, and people in the hobby releasing them. I do not really know why people think they won't make it in the northern gulf though. If you look at the map I attached, they are up north on the Atlantic side as far as Rhode Island.

Lionfish Distribution

 

[tedfirediver]

No they were not urchins , they were lionfish. I was diving off the H20 Below with Rich Sleppy as Dm and we were warned to watch out for the lionfish because they would hang out inside the wreck and if you werent paying attention and bumped your head on the ceiling you could get stuck. Capt Doug and Donna and Rich brought it to my attn before I made the dive and sure enough , they were dozens on the wreck. I have dove it a dozen times since then and have never seen another one.

 

[GLENFWB]

Wow, that is news to me. I have never heard of anyone seeing them this close. Did anyone get any pictures of them?

No they were not urchins , they were lionfish. I was diving off the H20 Below with Rich Sleppy as Dm and we were warned to watch out for the lionfish because they would hang out inside the wreck and if you werent paying attention and bumped your head on the ceiling you could get stuck. Capt Doug and Donna and Rich brought it to my attn before I made the dive and sure enough , they were dozens on the wreck. I have dove it a dozen times since then and have never seen another one.

 

[tedfirediver]

Wow, that is news to me. I have never heard of anyone seeing them this close. Did anyone get any pictures of them?

Ok maybe there were scorpionfish , my bad. I called Rich to verify and he said they were scorpionfish. I apologize for the discrepency.

 

[Wayward Son]

I wouldn't rule out aquariums as being a contributor to some specimens. Considering how many homes have been destroyed in hurricanes over the years I could see at least a few of them losing fish in the process.

We haven't seen any out of Panama City Beach yet, that I know of. If I see one it's gonna die.

 

[GLENFWB]

Thanks for clearing that up....as we used to say in Louisiana, "that makes more better sense."

Ok maybe there were scorpionfish , my bad. I called Rich to verify and he said they were scorpionfish. I apologize for the discrepency.

 

[Wayward Son]

scorpion fish make sense, I do see those.