''Pterois mombasae'', the African lionfish, deepwater firefish or frillfin turkeyfish, is a species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family

Scorpaenidae The Scorpaenidae (also known as scorpionfish) are a family of mostly marine fish that includes many of the world's most venomous species. As their name suggests, scorpionfish have a type of "sting" in the form of sharp spines coated with venom ...

, the scorpionfishes and lionfishes. It is found in the tropical Indian Ocean, typically in soft-bottomed areas of the ocean, often in conjunction with invertebrate growth (for example,

sponges Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through ...

). It grows to a maximum size of 20 cm, and is of moderate commercial value.

Taxonomy

''Pterois mombasae'' was first formally described in 1957 as ''Pteropterus mombasae'' by the South African

ichthyologist Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish ( Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 33,400 species of fish had been described as of Octobe ...

J. L. B. Smith James Leonard Brierley Smith (26 September 1897 – 8 January 1968) was a South African ichthyologist, organic chemist, and university professor. He was the first to identify a taxidermied fish as a coelacanth, at the time thought to be long ex ...

with the type locality given as a reef off Mombasa in Kenya. Smith noted that it seemed to most resemble '' Pterois sphex'' from Hawaii. In 2014 a new species, '' Pterois paucispinula'', was described from the Western Pacific Ocean and the authors of that description stated that ''P. mombasae'' was restricted to the Indian Ocean and that previously the new species had been overlooked. The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

refers to the type locality.

Description

''Pterois mobasae'' has 13 spines and 10 soft rays in its dorsal fin and 3 spines and 6 or 7 soft rays in its

anal fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as se ...

. It has an oblong laterally compressed body and has either no supraoculat tentacles or they are very small. The 18-19 fin rays in the pectoral din are unbranched. The body has many brown to brownish red bars of differing widths, the bars on the caudal peduncle are thin and wavy. There s a brownish red spot, smaller in diameter than the pupil, on the lower operculum. The soft-rayed part of the dorsal fin as well as the anal and caudal fins is translucent marked with a scattering of small brownish red spots on the rays. The

pelvic fin Pelvic fins or ventral fins are paired fins located on the ventral surface of fish. The paired pelvic fins are homologous to the hindlimbs of tetrapods. Structure and function Structure In actinopterygians, the pelvic fin consists of two en ...

is blackish. The maximum published length is , although a

standard length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies. These data are used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fisheries biology. Overall length * Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish m ...

of is more typical.

Distribution and habitat

''Pterois mombasae'' is found in the Indian Ocean from the eastern African coast between Kenya and South Africa, Madagascar and the Madives, India and east as far as the

Andaman Sea The Andaman Sea (historically also known as the Burma Sea) is a marginal sea of the northeastern Indian Ocean bounded by the coastlines of Myanmar and Thailand along the Gulf of Martaban and west side of the Malay Peninsula, and separated from ...

. It is a rare inhabitant of rocky bottoms on deep offshore reefs and is usually found on soft-bottom or muddy substrates with thick ridges of rubble amongst rich growths of invertebrates, paricularly sponges.

References

External links

*
Encyclopedia of Life
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2359431 mombasae Fish of the Indian Ocean Marine fish of Southern Africa Taxa named by J. L. B. Smith Fish described in 1957