Spotted Scorpionfish

The spotted Scorpion fish lives in coral reefs, in algae encrusted areas or on the bottoms of such places and lies in camouflage or hiding in caves or ledges.

They snap up their prey, which is anything that comes near it, and the spines of their dorsal fin contain venom that is a painful sting and deadly to smaller animals. The venomous dorsal fins are used not only for prey, but for self defense, although in many cases, given their excellent camo capacity, they don’t have need of it.

The Spotted Scorpionfish

It is quite formidable looking under the water, especially because it has venom that can also be used for self defense, They have some awesome, and very effective camouflage capabilities.

They have fleshy plume type things that hand over the eyes, which are called cirri, that when combined with the characteristic skin flaps around the head and their mottled wide-range of brown coloring makes them blend into the reef or rocky bottoms so that you cannot distinguish them from the bottom of the waters.

They also have some rather brilliant white spots on black on the pectoral fins which are displayed and show up well when they are feeling threatened or when they are swimming.

The spotted scorpionfish is one of the largest and most common scorpionfishes in the Atlantic and Caribbean.
They can grow up to about 8 inches in length, and usually weigh about five pounds when adult, with the females being slightly larger than the males.

They are found in nearly all bodies of water, and can range from Bermuda to Massachusetts, and the northern Gulf of Mexico to southern Brazil.