Lionfish

A Lionfish is any of several species of venomous marine fish in the genera Pterois, Parapterois, Brachypterois, Ebosia or Dendrochirus, of the family Scorpaenidae. The lionfish is also known as the

Pterois antennata in Schönbrunn Zoo, Vienna, Austria

Turkey Fish, Scorpion or Fire Fish.^[1] They are notable for their extremely long and separated spines, and have a generally striped appearance, red, green, navy green, brown, orange, yellow, black, maroon, or white.

Antennata Lionfish, Peleliu, Palau

Native environment

The lionfish is native to the Indian Pacific oceanic region. This range extends from western Australia and Malaysia east to French Polynesia and the Pitcairn Islands. In addition, the range also extends north to southern Japan and southern Korea and south to parts of coastal Australia.^[2]

Although the lionfish is not native to all regions in the world, these fish continue to spread throughout many parts of the world.^[3] Due to a recent introduction, the lionfish has been spotted in the warmer coral regions of the eastern Atlantic Ocean around the Azores and extending into the Mediterranean Sea, and also in the Caribbean Sea (Cozumel, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Belize, Roatan, and Puerto Rico as of 2010) and in the Red Sea .^[4] It has been speculated that this introduction may well have been caused when Hurricane Andrew destroyed an aquarium in southern Florida.^[5]. However, a more recent report ^[6] states that NOAA ecologist James Morris Jr. has discovered that a Lionfish was caught off Dania, FL prior to Hurricane Andrew, as long ago as 1985. Morris indicated that the "most likely vector" was release of fish and/or eggs into the wild by people in the aquarium trade. DNA from captured lionfish in this region shows that they all originated from the same six or seven fish.^[7] The lion fish has also a low breeding system.^{[clarification needed]} Pterois volitans lionfish has also been found in waters near Long Island , New York, where as a 'tropical fish', it was not expected to be able to survive.

Treatment of invasive Lionfish in the Caribbean varies - in Cozumel they are frequently captured alive in order to collect a bounty that has been placed upon them, while in Roatan they are frequently killed on sight by local divemasters, with as many as five or six killed during a single 1-hour dive.

Size

There are many types of lionfish that vary in size. The Common Lionfish, or Devil Firefish, generally reaches a size of 30 cm to 35 cm (12 inches), while smaller lionfish, like the Fuzzy Dwarf Lionfish, Dendrochirus brachypterus, are typically the size of a tennis ball, not including fins. In the Caribbean where lionfish are non-indigenous, they grow to a size of up to 55 cm.

Warnings

The NOAA encourages everyone (divers and fishers) to be extremely cautious and avoid contact with the venomous spikes of the lionfish. Usually, lionfish are not aggressive toward humans and will almost always keep their distance when given the opportunity, so they pose a relatively low risk. In addition, their stings are not deadly, but they are very painful.^[8]

Venom

Red lionfish in warning posture

The lionfish is one of the most venomous fish on the ocean floor. Lionfish have venomous dorsal spines that are used purely for defense. When threatened, the fish often faces its attacker in an upside down posture which brings its spines to bear. However, a lionfish's sting is usually not fatal to humans. If a human is envenomed, that person will experience extreme pain, and possibly headaches, vomiting, and breathing difficulties. A common treatment is soaking the afflicted area in hot water, as very few hospitals carry specific treatments.^[9][10][11] However, immediate emergency medical treatment is still advised, as some people are more susceptible to the venom than others.

Feeding

Lionfish are voracious predators. They do not use their spines to capture prey; only for protection from their own predators. When hunting, they corner prey using their large fins and then use their quick reflexes to swallow the prey whole. They hunt primarily from late afternoon to dawn. In captivity, lionfish can be trained to eat frozen krill and mysis.

Predators

The lionfish have very few natural predators, but the grouper and other fish have been found with lionfish remains in their stomachs.

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Clownfish

Clownfish or anemonefish are fishes from the subfamily Amphiprioninae in the family Pomacentridae. About twenty-nine species are recognized, one in the genus Premnas, while the remaining are in the genus Amphiprion. In the wild they all form symbiotic mutualisms with sea anemones. Depending on species, clownfish are overall yellow, orange, reddish, or blackish, and many show white bars or patches. The largest can reach a length of 18 centimetres (7.1 in), while some can be as small as 10 centimetres

Clownfish
Ocellaris clownfish, Amphiprion ocellaris
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Perciforlmes
Family:	Pomacentridae
Subfamily:	Amphiprioninae

Ecology and habitat

Clownfish are native to warmer waters of the Indian and Pacific oceans, including the Great Barrier Reef and the Red Sea. While most species have restricted distributions, others are widespread. They are generally highly host specific, and especially the genera Heteractis and Stichodactyla, and the species Entacmaea quadricolor are frequent partners. The clownfish feeds on small invertebrates which otherwise potentially could harm the sea anemone, and the fecal matter from the clownfish provides nutrients to the sea anemone. Clownfish are omnivores. Algae accounts for around 20 to 25 percent of its diet in the wild (and should also account for its amount of algae diet in captivity as well). It has also been suggested that the activity of the clownfish results in greater water circulation around the sea anemone. In addition to providing food for the clownfish, the sea anemone also provides safety due to its poison.

Clownfish and certain damselfish are the only species of fishes that can avoid the potent poison of a sea anemone. There are several theories about how this is accomplished:

• The mucus coating of the fish may be based on sugars rather than proteins. This would mean that anemones fail to recognize the fish as a potential food source and do not fire their nematocysts, or sting organelles.

• The coevolution of certain species of clownfish with specific anemone host species and may have acquired an immunity to the nematocysts and toxins of their host anemone. Experimentation has shown that Amphiprion percula may develop resistance to the toxin from Heteractis magnifica, but it is not totally protected, since it was shown experimentally to die when its skin, devoid of mucus, was exposed to the nematocysts of its host.^[1]
  

  

  A pair of pink anemonefish (Amphiprion perideraion) in their anemone home.

Clownfish live in small groups inhabiting a single anemone. The group consists of a breeding pair, which cohabit with a few non-reproductive, "pre-pubescent", and smaller male clownfish. When the female dies, the dominant male changes sex and becomes the female.^[2] This life history strategy is known as sequential hermaphroditism. Because clownfish are all born as males, they are protandrous hermaphrodites (pro=first; androus=male).^[3]

Clownfish lay eggs on any flat surface close to their host anemones. In the wild, clownfish spawn around the time of the full moon and the male parent guards them until they hatch about 6 to 10 days later, typically 2 hours after dusk.^{[citation needed]} Clownfish are omnivorous: in the wild they eat live food such as algae, plankton, molluscs, and crustacea; in captivity they can survive on live food, fish flakes, and fish pellets. They feed mostly on copepods and mysids, and undigested food from their host anemones.^{[citation needed]}

Depending on the species, clownfish can lay hundreds or thousands of eggs. Clownfish were the first type of marine ornamental fish to be successfully bred in captivity on a large scale. It is one of a handful of marine ornamentals whose complete life cycle has been closed in captivity. Members of some clownfish species, such as the maroon clownfish, become aggressive in captivity; others, like the false percula clownfish, can be kept successfully with other individuals of the same

In the aquarium

A clownfish swimming.

Clownfish are now reared in captivity by a handful of marine ornamental farms in the USA, Clown fish were the first species of Saltwater fish to successfully be Tank-raised. Tank-raised fish are a better choice for aquarist, because wild-caught fish are more likely to die soon after purchasing them due to the stress of capture and shipping. Also, tank-bred fish are usually more disease resistant and in general are less affected by stress when introduced to the aquarium. Captive bred clownfishes may not have the same instinctual behavior to live in an anemone. They may have to be coaxed into finding the anemone by the home aquarist. Even then, there is no guarantee that the anemone will host the clownfish.

When a sea anemone is not available in an aquarium, the clownfish may settle in some varieties of soft corals, or large polyp stony corals. If the fish settles in a coral, it could agitate the fish's skin, and, in some cases, may kill the coral. Once an anemone or coral has been adopted, the clownfish will defend it. As there is less pressure to forage for food in an aquarium, it is common for clownfish to remain within 2-4 inches of their host for an entire lifetime.

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Description and ecology

Description and ecology

A school of false moorish idols, Heniochus diphreutes

Butterflyfish mostly range from 12 to 22 centimetres (4.7 to 8.7 in) in length. The largest species, the lined butterflyfish and the saddle butterflyfish, C. ephippium, grow to 30 centimetres (12 in). The common name references the brightly coloured and strikingly patterned bodies of many species, bearing shades of black, white, blue, red, orange and yellow. Other species are dull in colour. Many have eyespots on their flanks and dark bands across their eyes, not unlike the patterns seen on butterfly wings.^[2] Their deep, laterally narrow bodies are easily noticed through the profusion of reef life. The conspicuous coloration of butterflyfish may be intended for interspecies communication. Butterflyfish have uninterrupted dorsal fins with tail fins that may be rounded or truncated, but are never forked.

Generally diurnal and frequenting waters of less than 18 metres (59 ft) (though some species descend to 180 metres (590 ft)), butterflyfish stick to particular home ranges. The corallivores are especially territorial, forming mated pairs and staking claim to a specific coral head. Contrastingly, the zooplankton feeders form large conspecific groups. By night butterflyfish hide in reef crevices exhibit markedly different coloration.

Their coloration also makes butterflyfish popular aquarium fish. However, most species feed on coral polyps and sea anemones. Balancing the relative populations of prey and predator is complex, leading Hobby aquarists to focus on the few generalists and specialist zooplankton feeders.

Butterflyfish are pelagic spawners; that is, they release many buoyant eggs into the water which become part of the plankton, floating with the currents until hatching. The fry go through what is known as a tholichthys stage, wherein the body of the post-larval fish is covered in large bony plates extending from the head. They lose their bony plates as they mature.^[2] Only one other family of fish, the scats (Scatophagidae) express such an armored stage.

Etymology

The family name derives from the Ancient Greek words chaite ("hair") and odontos ("tooth"). This is an allusion to the rows of brush-like teeth found in their small, protrusile mouths.

Taxonomy, systematics and evolution

The Chaetodontidae can be, but is not usually, divided into two lineages that arguably are subfamilies. The subfamily name Chaetodontinae is a little-used leftover from the period when the Pomacanthidae and Chaetodontidae were united under the latter name as a single family. Hence, Chaetodontinae is today considered a junior synonym of Chaetodontidae. In any case, one lineage of Chaetodontidae (in the modern sense) contains the "typical" butterflyfishes around Chaetodon, while the other unites the bannerfish and coralfish genera. As the "Perciformes" are highly paraphyletic, the precise relationships of the Chaetodontidae as a whole are badly resolved.^[3]

Before DNA sequencing, the taxonomy was confused about whether to treat these as species or subspecies. Also, numerous subgenera have been proposed for splitting out of Chaetodon, and it is becoming clear how to subdivide the genus if that is desired.^[4]

The fossil record of this group is marginal. Their restriction to coral reefs means that their carcasses are liable to be dispersed by scavengers, overgrown by corals, and any that do fossilize will not long survive erosion. However, there is Pygaeus, a very basal fossil from the mid-late Eocene of Europe, dating approximately from the Bartonian 40-37 million years ago (mya). Thus, the Chaetodontidae emerged probably in the early-mid Eocene. A crude molecular clock in combination with the evidence given by Pygaeus allows to place the initial split between the two main lineages to the mid-late Eocene, and together with the few other fossils it allows to deduce that most living genera were probably distinct by the end of the Paleogene 23 mya.^[5]

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Butterflyfish

The butterflyfish are a group of conspicuous tropical marine fish of the family Chaetodontidae; the bannerfish and coralfish are also included in this group. Found mostly on the reefs of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans, there are approximately 120 species in 10 genera^[1]. A number of species pairs occur in the Indian and Pacific oceans, members of the huge genus Chaetodon. The raccoon butterflyfish, Chaetodon lunula, is sometimes placed in the genus Rabdophorus

Butterflyfish look like smaller versions of angelfish (Pomacanthidae) but unlike these lack preopercle spines at the gill covers. Some members of the genus Heniochus resemble the Moorish Idol (Zanclus cornutus) of the monotypic Zanclidae. Among the paraphyletic "Perciformes", the former are probably not too distantly related to butterflyfish, whereas the Zanclidae seem far less close.

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Marble

Marble (M/+ or M/M or M/g or M/Gm)

Marble expresses with much more black pattern than Gold Marble does. The marbling varies from 50% to 95%.

Black Hybrid (D/g or D/Gm)

Cross a black with a gold, and you get black hybrids. A very vigorous black, that may look brassy when young. Does not breed true.

Gold Pearlscale Angelfish - P. scalare

Pearlscale (p/p)

Pearlscale is a scale mutation. The "pearlscale" angelfish is also called the "diamond" angelfish in some regions due to the gem-like iridiscence on its scales. The scale have a wrinkled, wavy look that reflect light to create a sparkling effect. Pearl develops slowly, starting at around 9 weeks of age. In can be inhibited by stressful conditions. It is recessive, requiring both parents to contain the allele. It looks best on light colored fish like Gold, Gold Marble, Albino, Silver and Zebra. It is difficult to see on dark fish and blushing angelfish.

Black Ghost (D/+ - S/+)

Same description as a Ghost, with a darker appearance due to the Dark gene. Very similar to a Black Lace without complete stripes. Ghosts generally have more iridescence than non-ghosts.

Albino (a/a)

Albino removes dark pigments in most varieties. Some, like Albino Marble will still have a little black remaining on a percentage of the fish. The eye pupils are pink as in all albino animals. The surrounding iris can be red or yellow depending on the variety of Albino.

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Blue Blushing

Blue Blushing (S/S)

This is a wild-type angelfish that has two Stripeless genes. The body is actually grey with a bluish tint under the right light spectrum. An iridescent pigment develops as they age. This iridescence usually appears blue under most lighting.

Silver Gold Marble (Gm/+)

A Silver angel with a single Gold Marble gene. This is a co-dominant expression of Silver and Gold Marble, so you see traits of both.

Ghost (S/+)

A fish that is heterozygous for Stripeless. This results in a mostly silver fish with just a stripe through the eye and tail. Sometimes portions of the body stripes will express.

Gold Marble (Gm/g or Gm/Gm)

A gold angel with black marbling. Depending on whether the Gold Marble is single or double dose, the marbling will range from 5% to 40% coverage.

Marble Angelfish - P. scalare

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Blue Blushing

Blue Blushing (S/S)

This is a wild-type angelfish that has two Stripeless genes. The body is actually grey with a bluish tint under the right light spectrum. An iridescent pigment develops as they age. This iridescence usually appears blue under most lighting.

Silver Gold Marble (Gm/+)

A Silver angel with a single Gold Marble gene. This is a co-dominant expression of Silver and Gold Marble, so you see traits of both.

Ghost (S/+)

A fish that is heterozygous for Stripeless. This results in a mostly silver fish with just a stripe through the eye and tail. Sometimes portions of the body stripes will express.

Gold Marble (Gm/g or Gm/Gm)

A gold angel with black marbling. Depending on whether the Gold Marble is single or double dose, the marbling will range from 5% to 40% coverage.

Marble Angelfish - P. scalare

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