Turkey fish?

Since this is November and a week before Thanksgiving, I thought I would try to find something with a reference to Thanksgiving to talk about for the sea creature this month. I discovered that the Lion fish can also be called a Turkey fish, which I guess is suitable. That was about the closest I could find to a turkey fish.

As you know, the lion fish (or turkey fish) is known for its venomous spines. It's really a cool looking fish, as you'll see from the pictures below. So, here's some facts about them.

As I was looking for info on the lion fish, I did a google search, and good old Wikipedia popped up. After reading through it, I remembered why I dislike it. This sentence appeared at one point: "the lion fish has a low breeding system". No punctuation, grammar, etc. Needless to say, I went elsewhere.

Lion fish dwell throughout the world, although are more commonly found in tropical areas. Apparently, they have become more widespread after a hurricane destroyed an aquarium and the lion fish escaped into the ocean.

The spines on the lion fish are venomous, but not deadly. Apparently, they're very painful, but are not hard to cure. Stings to a human can cause headaches, vomiting, and breathing difficulty. Lion fish get into an upside down position so their spikes are facing their enemies and so sting them. They don't really have any natural predators, though. Lion fish are not known to be aggressive towards humans, so you probably don't need to run away, screaming and shouting when you see one in your bathtub or something.

Even though they have venomous spines, they don't use them to hunt. Instead, they use their large fins to corner their prey, and then swallow them whole. Basically, if you're a small fish, you don't want to hang around these guys very much.

Lion fish usually get to about 12 inches in length, although there have been some that were 112 inches long and weighed over 79 pounds. On the other end of the scale, there are several types of lion fish (one known as the "Fuzzy Dwarf") that are about 6-7 inches in length.

From the pictures, you can tell that these fish are pretty colorful. The last picture looks most like a turkey, in my opinion.

 

 

 

Just a note about what I said at the end of last week's post, the new Doctor Who special is pretty cool, and the Assassin's Creed 2 soundtrack is really cool. You all should go watch the new Doctor Who and buy the AC 2 soundtrack.