Pterois radiata

Whitelined Lionfish | Clearfin Lionfish | Clearfin Turkeyfish | Radial Firefish | Whitebar Lionfish | Whitefin Lionfish
Pterois radiata
Pterois radiata, Photo: Graham Edgar

Distribution

Tropical Indo-Pacific


Description

Broad dark red to dark brown body bars with fine white inter-spaces. Fully incised dorsal spines and no spots on soft dorsal, tail and anal fins. Two short horizontal white stripes on tail base. P. antennata (Spotfin Lionfish) lacks horizontal tail base stripes and has large spots on pectoral fins, while P. volitans (Common Lionfish) has flag-like membranes on extended pectoral fin rays.


Information

Max Size: 24 cm

Sea Temperature Range: 21.4-30.8°C

Depth: 1-30m

Habitat Generalization Index: 0.71

Also referred to as the SGI (Species Generalisation Index), this describes the habitat niche breadth of the species. Species with values less than 15 are found in a relatively narrow range of reef habitat types (specialists), while those over 25 may be found on most hard substrates within their range (generalists). Learn more here.


Conservation and Rarity

IUCN Status: Not Evaluated

Occurrence: Infrequent (1.4% of sites)

Occurrence describes how often the species is found on surveys within its distribution. It is calculated as the % of reef sites surveyed by RLS divers across all the ecoregions in which the species has been observed

Abundance: Solitary (1 per transect)

Abundance is calculated as the average number of individuals recorded per RLS transect, where present.


Edit by: RD Stuart-Smith, GJ Edgar, AJ Green, IV Shaw. 2015. Tropical Marine Fishes of Australia. Reed New Holland