Lionfish ID

[Lord_Blackadder]

Caught this guy two days ago. I think it's Pterois mombasae. It was in shallow water (about 6 meters), but in a very protected area where I've caught several deepwater species before. I have a similar sized P. antennata and it looks quite different. Pectoral webbing looks different to Dendrochirus zebra too. We do get all three species here. Any ideas?

 

[Reefkeeper 18]

It looks a little like a mombasa

 

[Mental1]

Hi Lord_Blackadder and welcome to Reef Central. What a beautiful fish! And you just caught it? Nice! I am thinking mombassa too but I am sure Greg and others will chime in when they see this....

 

[Lord_Blackadder]

Hi Lord_Blackadder and welcome to Reef Central. What a beautiful fish! And you just caught it? Nice! I am thinking mombassa too but I am sure Greg and others will chime in when they see this....

Thanks!

Yeah I caught it thinking it was a brightly coloured antennata or even a Dendrochirus. We get the odd antennata here but apparently P. mombasae is quite rare and usually at 40m+. Also got a nice yellow Taenianotus on the same dive.

 

[namxas]

P. mombassae, and a nice-looking one too!

Besides the eye size and the pectoral spotting, there's an easy "handle" for ID...if you look at the pectoral rays of the Mombasa lionfish, you'll see that they have red "bands" on them...P. antennata's are pure white or pinkish, but not striped.

Take a peek at the comparison photo in the "medium-bodied" lions section of THIS article, and you'll see what I mean.



That's cool that you were able to collect it yourself...we could definitely put you to work!

 

[Lord_Blackadder]

Thanks for the comments. Now to get it eating frozen so that I don't have go collect live food each week. My antennata went almost straight onto frozen mysis so with luck this guy won't be too fussy either.

 

[Mental1]

That's cool that you were able to collect it yourself...we could definitely put you to work!

That's what I was thinking Greg! But it would be a long enough trip from SA to New Hampshire, let alone CA!

What a beautiful find though. I am sure you will get him switched over quickly. How about some pictures of your other lions?

 

[Lord_Blackadder]

Just an update...the P. mombasae is doing well. Still not taking dead food, but I've got a steady supply of small crabs for it to eat until it does.

Caught this guy today...been looking for one for a while now:

[/IMG]

Apologies for poor photo quality, it's still in the catch bucket. Pretty sure it's R. frondosa. Still quite small, about 3". Also caught it unusually shallow, about 6ft deep.

 

[Mental1]

OMG -- beautiful. I miss my rhinopias. Nice -- I am sooo jealous! How about a full tank shot with all of your catches?