Talk:Lionfish (disambiguation)

Native environment??
"The lionfish is not native to the tropical region of the world..." I think this is not true.

First sentence from: http://library.thinkquest.org/C007974/2_1lio.htm "This brightly colored fish is usually found in coral reefs, especially in shallow waters of the Indo-Pacific region, hovering in caves or near crevices. "

-anon88.112.210.47 (talk) 15:34, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

Yes, they are native to the Pacific, but not the atlantic. Itshouldn't really say 'not native to tropical regions' though. -remey007 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Remey007 (talk • contribs) 04:44, 31 January 2011 (UTC)

err.. i think someone should fix this
This article says "While they are available for home aquaria, the venom of the spines is extremely painful, and lionfish are only recommended for the careful aquarist. They are a very hardy and disease resistant fish, making them a good choice for beginner aquarists." i think this should be changed.

"careful" and "beginner" are not necessarily mutually exclusive. You do make a good poshould be big enough that the lionfish can't swallow it. Two hardy fish that will cleanup excess hair algae that probably won't fit are the yellow tang and the foxface. between the two the foxface is the heatier.

Does this belong in the article?
"They are QUITE tasty. Lemon helps. Asparagus is an excellent accompanyment. Go with a Aussie white wine, and lingonberry mousse from IKEA for dessert."

I doubt it's worth putting in the article. Can anyone justify its existence? Crimson Shadow 21:49, 9 September 2006 (UTC)
 * Wikipedia is not a forum for advice and how-tos, however, a few notes about the culinary uses, in an encyclopedic tone, would be useful. --Eyrian 07:39, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

I don't think lionfish has anything to do with fugu as stated in the article. The venom is in the spines. I know many people who have eaten lionfish and declared it very good. I think it is appropriate to mention that lionfish are good and safe to eat. Ryanneve 13:11, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

The illustration from the Nuremberg Chronicles most likely has nothing to do with the species discussed on this page and should be removed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.207.62.158 (talk) 20:50, 5 February 2010 (UTC)

I think that it is unnecessary to mention the IKEA pie, but maybe keep some bits about how to prepare them, etc??? -remey007 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.49.109.96 (talk) 23:10, 31 January 2011 (UTC)

lion fish
plese tell me how the lionfish moves from place to place —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.237.128.1 (talk) 21:01, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

I assume they swim! Michael1115 (talk) 17:30, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

I am studying Lionfish. I have observed them using their back three fins ( the tail one, and the two smaller ones on the belly and spine)for power, but sometimes using the other fins for steering on top of that. -remey007 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.49.109.96 (talk) 23:13, 31 January 2011 (UTC)

merge with scorpionfish
Hey, there are separate entries for "Lionfish" and "Scorpionfish", neither of which refers to the other. Should these be consolidated? I'm under the impression that they're kind of the same general thing. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 61.115.196.46 (talk) 06:14, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

seen in bahamas
PLease note i am a diving instructor on Andros in the Bahamas and we are now seeing Lionfish on practically every dive and now on snorkels inside the reef - it looks like they are here to stay 67.142.130.28 20:24, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

what do they eat?

I am diving in Nassau (New Providence Island), the Bahamas this week (13 July 2010) and I have seen hordes of lionfish on almost every dive. They especially seem to hang out in wrecks. They don't seem to bother anyone. They are neither aggressive nor scared of people. They ignore divers; they don't flee or react at all even if you come within 1 ft of them to take their picture. broughtonspence@verizon.net —Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.236.125.93 (talk) 03:24, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

They don't attack divers, but they are extremely harmful to ecosystems in which they do not naturally belong. In the Atlantic, in some reefs, they have slashed the survival rate of other fish by eight percent in just 5 weeks. In their natural home, the fish have learned to stay away from them, but in the Atlantic the fish do not recognize them. They are a huge threat to the survival of reefs in the Caribbean, Florida, etc. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.49.109.96 (talk) 23:17, 31 January 2011 (UTC)
 * yea your right, from FL — Preceding unsigned comment added by TampaGMKid (talk • contribs) 23:25, 31 January 2011 (UTC)

Vandalism
The 'size' section of the page currently reads: "There are many types of lionfish that are 20 feet long The common lionfish generally reaches a size of 30-35cm, while smaller lionfish, like the Fucking retarded Dwarf, are typically the size of a tennis ball, not including fins". I'm sure it's reasonable to assume that 'Fucking retarded Dwarf' is not a type of lionfish. 138.130.128.242 (talk) 01:21, 31 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Fixed. Cheers, ♦ Maddie   talk  01:24, 31 January 2009 (UTC)

"Fucking retarded Dwarf"??? Um... Yeah... Vandalism is a good title for this... A VERY good title for this!!!

You say 'invasive species' like it's a bad thing.
I’m a biologist and I would like to question this whole concept of ‘invasive species’. What is wrong with a species being successful in a Darwinian sense? If lionfish are spreading out all over the world, good on them. At least they aren’t endangered. They don’t bother anyone. Don’t mess with them and they won’t mess with you. I have been seeing them while SCUBA diving off New Providence Island all week. I like them. It’s natural to have loser species replaced with more successful species.

Ditto the snakeheads in the Chesapeake Bay. You don't hear snakeheads whining about too much nitrogen in the Bay. They just deal with it successfully.

The Earth is not static. Lame, non-resilient, overly specialized species always get their butts kicked by smart tough flexible species. It has been happening for about 4 billion years now. broughtonspence@verizon.net —Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.236.125.93 (talk) 03:58, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

But they weren't naturally introduced to this ecosystem. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.49.109.96 (talk) 23:20, 31 January 2011 (UTC)

confusion, disambiguation may be needed
This page seems badly confused. It states that it includes species from "genera Pterois, Parapterois, Brachypterois, Ebosia or Dendrochirus", but only mentions P. volitans and D. brachypterus, while is largely concerned with describing the P. volitans invasion of the Caribbean and east coast of North America. The natural distribution described here is specific to P. volitans as the Devil firefish (P. miles) has an entirely different range. My initial impulse is to turn this page into a disambiguation page, referring up to Scorpaenidae for those readers who want the overview about venom and distribution, and simply listing species that are sometimes known as lionfish for those who want to know specifically about the P. volitans problem in the Caribbean, etc. As it is, this page simply confusingly describes some rather specific issues as if they apply to five genera. - BanyanTree 01:08, 14 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Taking silence as enthusiastic support, I have made this a disambiguation page and transferred content to Red lionfish, aka P. volitans. - BanyanTree 07:55, 17 January 2011 (UTC)
 * I applaud your effort but think we need to redirect lionfish to this page, maybe beneath that add "for other species commonly known as lionfish see your DAB page" Make sense?--Mike - Μολὼν λαβέ 00:28, 4 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Given the large number of incoming links, it appears that this name should indeed be redirected to the primary meaning. bd2412  T 00:46, 4 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Wandering over - I'm a bit confused about what you guys think is the primary meaning. From my perspective, the best choice is Pterois, since the mention in Octopus for example almost certainly doesn't refer to a particular species and even the fish owned by the fictional Jean-Luc Picard was mostly P. volitans but once P. radiata.
 * However, note that List of marine aquarium fish species includes a number of Scorpaenids outside of Pterois, like this dab. It's just a mess.  Any way that you do it is going to be wrong in some significant way - either from a scientific or common name perspective.  (Though I still maintain that having most of this page be a duplicate of Red lionfish was just a bad idea all the way around.)  In any case, moving this page to Lionfish (disambiguation), redirecting it to Pterois and putting a redirect hatnote at Pterois is probably the least wrong way to do it.  - BanyanTree 04:39, 10 February 2011 (UTC)
 * I am a bit gun-shy after having tried that and been soundly repudiated with Spurfowl. If we can get more voices for a consensus, I think that will be a viable solution. Cheers! bd2412  T 14:29, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

I came here by way of finding pages on my watchlist tagged for "dn", when it was very obvious (to me!) that Pterois is, indeed, the intended meaning. (Plus a few where disambiguation really is not needed, either because the link is from a page about one of the lionfish species, or is a list of lionfish species, linking in either case to the "lionfish" word, so linking to the dab page is appropriate.) I've tried to go around and dab the tagged pages, but so many of them were tagged (with software assistance I assume), that I cannot do them all. BD, I'd like to suggest that you do so, and please feel free to contact me for any where you are not sure what to do. I think any biological use of the word, without further clarification, can safely go to Pterois. --Tryptofish (talk) 21:19, 12 February 2011 (UTC)
 * That's enough for me. Pages rearranged as described above and resulting double-redirects now pointing at Pterois. Cheers, BanyanTree 02:22, 14 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Good job!--Mike - Μολὼν λαβέ 02:29, 14 February 2011 (UTC)