Red Lionfish

• It can swallow prey up to half its own body length.
• Its venomous dorsal spines are an effective defence against predators.
• It lives on coral reefs, in lagoons and on rocky outcrops in the Indo-Pacific.
• ecologíaIt is an invasive species in the Caribbean and western Atlantic, where it has no natural predators and its venomous spines are a threat to local reefs.
• It is the first fish species to have established itself as an invader in the western Atlantic. The first specimen was caught at Dania Beach, Florida, in 1985, and there were no further sightings until 1992.
• Genetic studies indicate that the entire Atlantic population descends from a handful of individuals, a bottleneck consistent with aquarium releases.
• The story of Hurricane Andrew in 1992, said to have freed six specimens from an aquarium, does not explain the origin: a fish had already been caught seven years earlier.
• In less than three decades it occupied some 7.3 million square kilometres of the western Atlantic and the Caribbean.
• Its success comes down to a combination that is hard to counter: prey that do not recognise it as a predator, almost no natural controls, continuous reproduction and a long larval phase that disperses the young fish on the currents.
• Its dorsal, pelvic and anal spines are venomous and cause intense pain, though they are rarely fatal.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - bony skeleton (fish)

Habitat and environment

Coral reefs, lagoons and rocky outcrops of the Indo-Pacific; an established invasive species in the Caribbean and western Atlantic

Birth weight

An egg inside a floating gelatinous mass

Sexual maturity

Under 1 year (by size: female ~18 cm, male ~10 cm)

Gestation / incubation

~25 days of the gelatinous egg mass drifting before hatching

Litter / clutch size

12,000 to 15,000 eggs per mass, with two masses released per spawning every 4 days in warm water

Sources consulted: USM Aquila Thesis (life history study); Dimensions.com; Planet Zoo 2 Zoopedia; FishBase; Animalia.bio; FWC; The Animal Facts; PMC (Barbados invasion study)