Lionfish can tolerate nearly fresh water

After seeing more and more lionfish while snorkeling in the rivers near her home in Jupiter, Florida, Lauren Arrington had an idea for her six grade science fair. She decided to see how salty the water has to be for lionfish to survive. The experiment involved six 10 gallon aquariums filled with saltwater. Each had a lionfish that she had caught. She then added freshwater to 5 of the aquariums each night for over 2 weeks. Her findings were startling: she found that the lionfish could live in water as fresh as just 6 ppt salt. This attracted the attention of local marine scientists who continued her experiments with similar findings. This may mean more trouble for local fishes from these invasive predators as they are now being found in estuaries around Florida. Read more details in the link below.



Read more:
https://student.societyforscience.o...onfish-are-getting-fresh?mode=blog&context=80

 

Ouch! More trouble indeed, as they can gobble up tons of fry from most any species.

 

WOW that is scary and cool at the same time.

 

Did I hear the word lionfish? I'm surprised this bane hasn't occurred sooner. Maybe if they had of hit a bit harder a bit earlier, it wouldn't have gotten so bad. But who knows. It's only the Pterois genus that is a problem and hence they are the only ones that are banned. The others are not invasive.

 

I believe it was in the "conscientious marine aquarist", I'll have to dig it up to be sure, but they described a lionfish as being so hardy they could survive in a mud puddle. I thought at the time they were joking, but maybe there was some truth lol.

 

Heres another link.
http://www.weather.com/video/13-year-old-does-what-scientist-didnt-51374?