Lisbeth Hyler, age 10, of Chagrin Fall, Ohio, for her question:
How can the lionfish be poisonous?
Watch out for the lionfish, who is also known as the zebra fish or the turkeyfish. He is a little beauty about one foot long, but don't let his looks fool you. This glamor fish is a menace, armed with poisonous spikes. However, we are not likely to meet the lionfish while swimming off our beaches. He is at home in the Indian Ocean and the Southwest Pacific. Some of his milder relatives lurk along our shores, though they are smaller, more shy and less poisonous. ~r
Ordinary fish have smooth, streamlined bodies. Their fins are somewhat like gauzy fans, stiffened with pliable ribs. The body of the gaudy lionfish is mostly hidden like a pincushion inside an array of enormous spikes. Actually, they are extra long ribs reaching far out from the fins on his back, sides and tail. About 18 of them are fitted with spiked ends, grooved sides and poison making glands.
Even his non poisoned spikes can tear nasty wounds. But when the poisonous ones pierce the flesh, the venom flows along the grooves and is injected into the wounds. Most experts claim that these stabs are seldom fatal. But they do paralyze a victim's muscles. A lone swimmer might be too stiff or too weak to make it back to shore. The spikes of the lionfish may be almost as dangerous as a lion's claws.
His handsome body has vivid black and white zebra stripes, which explains why some people call him the zebra fish. His spikey fins are speckled with bright bars of black and white. When he spreads them apart, they look somewhat like the ruffled tail of an angry turkey. This explains why some people call him the turkeyfish. Actually he belongs to a rather nasty group called the scorpion fishes. They are also known as the mailcheek fishes because their cheeks are stiffened with bony plates. Like scorpions, all of them have stingers.
Several milder scorpionfish live along our Atlantic and Pacific shores. Most of them wear spikes. along their spines and frilly fans under their chins. Some of their spikes may be armed with poison making glands, but the venom is less dangerous than that of the lionfish. Most of them are called rock fish, because they shelter quietly among the rocks in shallow water. Their speckled butterfly colors blend in with the sun speckled water.
Our rockfishes have assorted cousins who prefer life in warmer seas. One is the gaudy sea robin, who uses his spikes to walk on the bottom. The rose fish the toadfish and the sea raven also belong to the group. The worst of the bunch is the stonefish, who hides himself in the muddy sand below the Indian Ocean. Bathers wading in shallow reefs may step on him by accident and when they do, his spikes inject a poison that is often fatal.