I found a interesting and scary article about the havoc the red lionfish is wrecking on the Caribbean environment. They are saying its the worst invasion in history:eek:.


Invader hits East Coast, Caribbean fish - World environment - MSNBC.com

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wow i didn't know they were getting that bad. good to know.

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Josie:cool:

This is really bad!I live in S.Florida and divers I know have told me there are lionfish everywhere around here.I'll bet they're going to be banned soon.I've also had reports of panther grouper,emperor snapper,and snowflake eels becoming more and more prevalent.The local ecosystem has taken a big hit already.Unfortunately our hobby is implicated as the cause-justifiably so.I know MANY people who've released all kinds of foreign species here.

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"All limitations are self imposed..."

Ok what going on here is as we have that goble warming thing going on (some beleave other don't) the ocean water in the atlantic is heating up making the envoriment for this fish, it not the aquariumist its mother nature, we are going to see alot of pacific fish here so we need to just get accustome to it.IMO

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Gold Coast Aquarium Society South Florida
www.goldcoastaquarium.org

Pretty horrible, hope they figure out a way to deal with the problem...

Sorry djrichie but while global warming may somehow contribute to enhanced spawn rates of the species already here,it has no influence on any mass migration by any particular species to any particular geographic zone.It would be far too much of a coincidence for the species people have been releasing here for years to pick the same location to make an exodus to from thousands of miles away!I'm afraid that the spark for this fire came from our fellow hobbyists unintentional placement of the species in question into local waters.Its one of those things where people figure"just one more won't hurt", (a phrase I've heard many times !)not thinking about the hundreds of others who've figured the same thing about THEIR releases!S.N.A.F.U.!

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"All limitations are self imposed..."

Yes, people have realeased this fish in the back into the wild, for years more years than most of us have been alive. However the atlantic ocean would get to cold for these fish to really survive and thrive, but in recent years the atlantic has been heating up for longer period of time and higher heat. This generally accounts for many more intence hurricanes in the altantic, I know this because I live in S. Florida and have spent much more time in recent year watching the weather. There has been research and even a paper writen not on a migration but and exspansion on suitable enviroment for this fish and many others that are not dangerous to the atlantic because of the warming of the atlantic ocean. The release of any aqurium fish back into any eco system is a bad thing and does occur, but you can not put the blame fully on the shoulder of the hobbiest. If the enviroment the fish is release into can not substain that year round, most fish die off. Lets look at S. Florida in our canals and lakes. You can find all most any tropical fish you could want buy, are they there because of hobbiest yes, but a lot more fish are released by fish farms just in the day of bussiness. Now factor in a simple slow moving tropical storm not even a hurricane, that causes heavey rains. There hold pen will over flow releasing hundreds od fish into the eco system. As a hobbiest I must except part of the blame even though I never released a fish back into the wild, but because it our responciblity to inform other the reasons why not to do this. I am not willing to take all the blame when I know the carelessness of bussiness world.

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Gold Coast Aquarium Society South Florida
www.goldcoastaquarium.org

I definitely see your point,and though I don't agree with all of it I think we can both agree that both of these problems are changing the face of the world around us,globally and locally.Whatever the reason-those lionfish are going nuts out there!

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"All limitations are self imposed..."

Yes this is a problem, but you have to remember AU and west coast of the N. and S. America have been dealing with it for years and have medicines in place for swimmers and divers (divers have it harder). I just look at this a snake in our backyards , we know they are there and will generally will flee when humans come around, but it you step on one or surprise you get bit.

So yes we can agree to disagree, and understand that this is a problem

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Gold Coast Aquarium Society South Florida
www.goldcoastaquarium.org

Hey!I'm not really that concerned about danger to humans as I am about the consequenses to the reefs.In the Bahamas where its worst they are already reporting fewer numbers of chromis,damsels,grammas,and pygmy angels.Thats what bugs me.One of the things that makes those reefs so awesome is the diversity of life.Lets hope it doesn't come to that!

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"All limitations are self imposed..."