Pterois miles

Not only do lionfish consume large quantities of juvenile fish (such as grouper and yellow-tail snapper) but they also out-compete native species (such as scamp, gag, and yellow-mouth grouper) for food (Morris et al. 2009).

Lionfish removed from nearby reefs and held in aquaria ate a wide variety of native reef fishes, including 6 different species from 5 families. Consistent with our field observations, captive lionfish ate both large volumes of small fish as well as large fish in relation to their body size. It was not unusual to observe lionfish consuming prey up to 2⁄3 of their own length. This pattern was especially apparent in smaller lionfish, including newly settled individuals. For example, one 3.1 cm TL lionfish recruit cornered and consumed a 2.0 cm TL cottonwick grunt Haemulon melanurum. seaweeds from overgrowing corals (Williams & Polunin 2001, Mumby et al. 2006). Considering the sizes of lionfish currently found in the Atlantic (up to 45 cm TL, Whitfield et al. 2007), and the size of prey fish found in stomach contents, the effects of lionfish predation on adult fish is also likely to represent a significant impact of this invasive species on native communities. Albins and Hixon (2008)

lionfish predation caused an overall increase in prey mortality and contributed to the local extinctions of 2 of 14 of prey populations; in contrast, no fairy basslet populations were extirpated on native-only reefs. Both extirpated populations began the experiment at low initial density, suggesting that, unlike native piscivores alone, the invader can cause high per capita loss rates at low prey density. Further, 9 out 14 fairy basslet populations that were exposed to the invader — across a range of initial densities — had a per individual predation risk of >50% across the experimental period compared with 3 prey populations showing such mortality rates on native-only reefs. The observation that lionfish lower the probability of local prey persistence corroborates previous ex - perimental research from the invaded range. Albins (2013) demonstrated that, over 8 wk, a single lionfish on a small patch reef can reduce prey richness by nearly 5 species compared to predator-free controls, an effect nearly twice as large as that caused by native piscivores (INGEMAN, 2016).