Ugly, beautiful – and deadly!
Some of the ugliest fish in the world and some of the most beautiful
fish in the world both belong to the same family.
The ugliest fish are creatures called stonefishes. They look like lumpy
rocks half buried in the sand.
The beautiful fish are creatures that are often called zebra fish,
lionfish, or turkey fish. Some of them have bodies that blaze with red
and white stripes. Others are maroon and white, with pale purple,
black-spotted fins. Their fins and tails are like feathery fans, and
their bodies are decorated with graceful flaps and frills.
But, ugly or beautiful, most members of this family are dangerous! All
of these fish have sharp, pointed spines on their backs or bellies. And
some of the fish can squirt deadly poison through their spines. Because
of this, this whole family of ugly and beautiful fish has been named
scorpionfish, after the deadly creature called a scorpion, which has a
poisonous stinger on its tail.
Scorpionfish use their spines to defend themselves. If another fish
seems interested in a lionfish as a meal, the lionfish will tilt itself
so that its spines point at the enemy. If the other fish gets too close,
the lionfish jabs at it. If any of the spines pierce the other fish’s
body, the fish will die. Even a person who is stung by a lionfish will
suffer terrible pain, and might die.
The stonefish is the deadliest of all the scorpionfish. Stonefish often
lie on the sandy sea bottom in shallow water. Should a barefoot person
step on a stonefish, the spines spring up, shooting poison into the
person’s foot. And anyone who steps on a stonefish is likely to die
within two hours!
The deadly stonefish lives in the Indian Ocean and parts of the South
Pacific. Other scorpionfish are found in warm waters along the coasts of
California and South Africa, and in tropical waters.
sargassum fish
