In the last year or so we have seen a remarkable drop in the number of lionfish here on Cayman reefs. So I thought I would go back through my Excel spreadsheets to gather some data, to see how many days it took me to catch each 1000 of the 10,000 lionfish that I have caught so far. I started killing lionfish here on Grand Cayman back in October 2009 but I did not actually … Continue reading
Lionfish is a healthy choice of fish to eat as they are shown to have a higher concentration of heart healthy Omega 3 fatty acids and a lower concentration of Omega 6 fatty acids. This all helps your cholesterol as the fatty acids in lionfish help to lower your bad cholesterol (LDL) and raise your good cholesterol (HDL). Nutritional studies have also found lionfish to be high in lean protein, and that lionfish, compared to … Continue reading
Lionfish is its common name, the most widely used common name. Other common names that people use for the lionfish around the world are: Zebrafish Firefish Turkeyfish Red lionfish Butterfly cod Ornate butterfly-cod Peacock lionfish Red firefish Scorpion volitans Devil firefish Dragonfish. The scientific classification is as follows: Kingdom – Animalia Phylum – Chordata Class – Actinopterygii Order – Scorpaeniformes Family – Scorpaenidae Subfamily – Pteroinae Genus – Pterois The dictionary definition of the genus … Continue reading
So I thought it was about time I opened up a few lionfish, so that we could have a look inside a lionfish stomach. What exactly have they been eating? In a previous post I told you about “What do lionfish eat?“. Now lets see inside a few stomachs and see what we can see. This is a collage of photos showing the contents of just one lionfish I cut up at the end of … Continue reading
Amazingly cannibalism has been recorded in over 1500 species in the animal kingdom. There is a long history of cannibalistic humans in such countries as Fiji, The Solomon Islands, Liberia, The Congo etc. Humans as a form of food were referred to as “long pigs” in some civilizations. Well it now turns out that lionfish are resorting to cannibalism. Katie Pyzyk published a post in the National Geographic on the 23rd July 2015 highlighting the … Continue reading
Have you ever wondered about all the interesting lionfish facts, but didn’t want to spend hours and hours hunting through google. Well here’s my list of what I think are the most interesting lionfish facts:- Lionfish have 18 needle sharp spines that contain venom which includes a protein, a neuromuscular toxin and a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine, all used for protection against predators. Read here about the lionfish spines and check out my macro photos. Lionfish eat … Continue reading
Lionfish actually come from the Indo-Pacific and the Red Sea, and there, in their native habitat, they have a number of predators that have been catching and eating them for millennia. Those predators that are known to definitely eat lionfish are as follows: Sharks Eels Grouper Cornetfish Frogfish Scorpionfish. So which of those predators living in the Western Atlantic Ocean, Gulf Of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea are known to have added the lionfish to their … Continue reading
Lionfish have an amazing defense system made up of 18 venomous spines. Have a look at my picture below which shows exactly where those 18 venomous lionfish spines are strategically positioned. You can see there are 13 spines towards the front and middle of the dorsal fin. There is 1 spine at the front (top) on each of the two pelvic fins, and there are 3 spines at the front of the anal fin. All … Continue reading
So what do lionfish eat? Very sadly they are voracious predators and can eat an enormous number of different marine creatures. Pretty much they will eat anything they can get in their mouth, about half the length of their body, which includes over 70 different fish, invertebrates and molluscs. Here is a list, which isn’t an exhaustive list, of what lionfish will eat: Grouper Snapper Parrotfish Sea Bass Grunts Damselfish Clownfish Basslets Gobies Blennies Wrasse Cardinalfish … Continue reading
So far I have caught a grand total of 10,874 lionfish Lionfish came to Grand Cayman in 2009 and we spotted our first one here in September of that year. However, I didn’t start recording my kills until 17th June 2010. In August 2012 I bought my own small boat so we could go out lionfish hunting on our days off. Sadly at the end of 2018 I sold the boat so the number of … Continue reading
