- Habitat
- Reef
- Max size
- 20 cm
- Depth
- 2-86 m
- Family
- Scorpaenidae
Pteropterus antennatus, the spotfin lionfish, banded lionfish, broadbarred lionfish, broadbarred firefish, raggedfinned firefish, raggedfinned scorpionfish or roughscaled lionfish, is a species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Scorpaenidae, the scorpionfishes and lionfishes. It is found in the tropical Indian and Western Pacific Oceans.
Adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Behaviour
Solitary and nocturnal like its relatives, but tends to sit deeper inside reef crevices and under overhangs by day rather than at a cave mouth.
Easily confused with
Side by side, with what tells them apart.
Both are red-brown and white barred with fanned pectoral fins. Zebra Turkeyfish's pectoral rays are joined by membrane nearly to their tips, making solid banded fans, and it stays small (25 cm). Broadbarred Firefish's pectoral rays stand free as long separate spines, spotted along their length.
See the Zebra Turkeyfish →
Broadbarred Firefish (Pterois antennata) has small dark spots on its pectoral-fin rays and reddish-brown bars over its whole body. Clearfin Lionfish (Pterois radiata) has no spots on its mostly clear fins, much thinner pale stripes, and a dark blotch at the base of its tail that the firefish lacks.
See the Clearfin Lionfish →
Red Lionfish (Pterois volitans) has broad, roughly even-width reddish-brown and pale bands over its whole body and large, plain pectoral fins with no spots on the rays. Broadbarred Firefish (Pterois antennata) has narrower, more numerous bars and small dark spots running along its pectoral-fin rays -- its long, branched eye tentacles are also more prominent.
See the Red Lionfish →