Lionfish generally refer to scorpionfish. They have dazzling stripes on their bodies, their pectoral fins are scattered and feathery, and there are several tentacles above their eyes, making them look like a male lion, hence the name lionfish. Lionfish mostly inhabit rocky or coral reefs near the coast in temperate zones, but also live in bridge piles, shipwrecks, and aquatic grass. Feeds on crustaceans, invertebrates and small fish. The distribution area is the Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean.
Lionfish are nocturnal, saltwater fish, swimming slowly in the dark water at night with their back and hip fins, and when the sun rises, they hide in the shadows of coral and rocks. During the day breaks, the head will be lowered and completely stationary. Peers communicate through touch, smell, and secretion of chemicals.
Lionfish has a solitary personality and likes to live alone. When in danger, lionfish will try to open their long fins as much as possible to make themselves appear large, warning each other with brightly colored fins.
Only during the breeding season will the lionfish come into contact with other species. In this case, a male fish is pursued by multiple females, and several fish act together to form a school of 3-8 fish.
In nature, the more beautiful creatures are often, the more dangerous they are, and lionfish is one of the typical representatives. Due to its special shape of the fins, coupled with different color stripes on the body, the lionfish is very beautiful from the appearance. However, the beautiful-looking lionfish was named the eighth most dangerous underwater creature by American Magazine.
Although the lionfish is not large, the swimming speed is not fast, and the active aggression is not strong, but its defense ability is rarely comparable to that of the fish, and it is precisely because of this that in the ocean, the lionfish has almost no natural enemies, and even those large fish that swallow the lionfish by mistake will be stabbed by the lionfish that enters the mouth and spit it out.
Be sure to prevent being stabbed by lionfish when exposed to them. They are poisonous glands, which produce acute sharp pain immediately after being stabbed, and the wound is locally whitish, followed by bruising, redness, burning, tissue corruption or complete paralysis of the limbs, and in severe cases, it is life-threatening.