Family Scorpaenidae

Common names:  rockfishes, scorpionfishes and lionfishes

Distribution:  Worldwide benthic - benthopelagic fishes with most species living in the shallow water of the continental shelves.  A few species occur on the continental slope.  

General description and features:   These fishes have large heads with spines projecting from bony crests on the head.  They have spines in the first dorsal and the anal fin.  In many species these are mildly toxic and in some like the tropical lionfishes very potent.

Feeding:  The majority of scorpaenids are sit and wait predators that either lie on the bottom or hover above a reef, kelp bed, or rock outcrop waiting for prey such as fish, crustacean, or cephalopods to swim by.

Reproduction and life history:  There are a few species in the genera Sebastes which live to depths of about 1000 meters.  They like shallow living Sebastes are livebearers which produce young that drift up into the water column.  The benthic Sebastolobus has two species which can occur to about 1800 meters.  They produce large floating masses of eggs that drift to the surface where they hatch.  The juvenile spend many months in the water column slowly descending to the bottom.

Sebastolobus altivelis next to ophiuroids in the Santa Catalina Basin (~1200 meters). Photo by K. L. Smith Jr.

S. alascanus resting on a slope of the canyon at 1000m in the Monterey Bay.