was it a scorpion fish????

[BigPhil]

the other week i was fishing out of portrush on the boat around the skerries and caught what was believed to be a scorpionfish about 7 to 8 inches long but bright red(like red gurnard),
anyone caught them like this before ?as any ive seen, and any of those who were on the boat have ever seen have been dark brown/black in colour before?unfortunately i didnt get a photo as i wanted to return it as quickly as possible.

[SeanP]

Hi Phil,
Is this a Scorpian? I caught this when we lived in Scotland, that was about 8in long.
Sean,

[img]http://www.firiescountryfurniture.com/Other/scorpian.jpg[/img]

[BigPhil]

yes to me thats a scorpionfish / sea scorpion, as i know them anyhow.looks just like the one i had but only it was bright red and perhaps slightly narrower mid body to tail!! caught it on a mustad luminous flash a boo rig baited with rag for ballans! maybe it was a sex/colour change or something like the wrasse do?????anyone??? :shock: :? maybe a seascorpion/red gurnard hybrid!! :lol: :lol:

[Ronald]

i've caught small long spined sea scorpions that have been red with blackpatches . i think they can change colour to match their surrondings .

[jd]

some more here...
http://web.ukonline.co.uk/aquarium/page ... lhead.html


but there are other scorpion fishes..

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/aquarium/page ... dfish.html

and

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/aquarium/page ... nfish.html

maybe the orginal poster caught a lesser redfish?
[img]http://web.ukonline.co.uk/aquarium/pics/LesserRedfish03.jpg[/img]

[pete]

Big Phil,
May have been a bluemouth(Helicolenus dactylopterus), we used to catch them from deep water pinnacles and wrecks of west Donegal. Small, and red and very similar to a scorpion fish but the inside of their mouth is blue. The specimen weight is 0.9kg.

Pete

[jd]

forgotten about the blue mouth..

[img]http://www.irish-trophy-fish.com/trophies/images/BLUEMOUT.jpg[/img]

[kieran]

Sean P

That is a shorthorn sculpin - greedy little buggers, aren;t they!?!

FWIW

[2Poc]

I have also caught a similar 'red scorpion fish' but that was off Portugal.

Question:
Is the shorthorn sculpin poisonous??

I've often seen people standing on them etc to get the hook out rather
than touching them.
If not, does anyone know whether there are poisonous fish other than
weevers around our coast?

Thanks,
Patrick.

[jd]

Question:
Is the shorthorn sculpin poisonous??

No

[Drew]

lol, JD, Straight to the point, No Mucking about, there's your answer, nuff said.

[BigPhil]

by the sound of things it must be a long spined scorpion just changed colour to match surroundings.definately not a bluemouth or any of the other photos.cheers for all your help and suggestions lads! :D

[Guest]

Alright Phil,i just wanted to give my opinion on what you caught.Firstly,seascorpion,sculpin and scorpionfish are 3 different species.
The fish sent in by Seanp looks like a short spined seascorpion(Myoxocephalus scorpius) which grows to about 19 inches,the long spined seascorpion(Taurulus bubalis) is probably the most commonly caught growing to around 6 inches.As for it being a sculpin i dont think it could be bbecause none of the different species of sculpin in our waters grow very big.There is a possiblity that it was a Red scorpionfish(Scorpaena scrofa) which inhabits the waters from Africa to Spain and even up to the south coasts of England an Ireland,and with such a warm year i dont see why they couldn`t move further north,after all we see sunfish and other weird species up here more often than in previous years.But it is probably more likely to be a colour variation of a short spined seascorpion.Theres a good book worth buying `Collins fish of Britain and Europe`(ISBN 0-00-219945-9) It has 753 species of fish from the sea and freshwater.
Well thats me finished rambling hope it cleared things up a bit. :)

[Davy Murdoch]

I forgot to log on before i sent the post above :oops: .Its lucky i know more about fish than i do about computers :?
Buy the book i`ve found it to be very useful. :lol:

[kieran]

Hi

Just for the record, Myoxocephalus scopius is commonly called the shorthorn sculpin, this is the name listed on http://www.fishbase.org - I tried a search under "short spined sea scorpion" and it lists the same species.

You will regularly find them in weedy pools up to around 4 cms long - I had one about 15 cms long on a 3/0 hook in dunmore east (well the buggers are all mouth!)... never seen one bigger than that, but I guess it is probably...

FWIW...

[Davy Murdoch]

Hi Kieran, I guess you learn something new every day,I`ve never heard it called a shorthorn sculpin before.I stand corrected. I saw one around 1lb 8oz caught in Bangor harbour years ago and you could literally fit your whole hand in its mouth and an 8/0 hook wouldn`t look out of place in there either.The term `greedy buggers ` is spot on,they`ll eat anything. :)

[Chris Mc]

my parents had a tropical fish shop for a number of years and I know there was two scorpion fish in the shop. They were more orange then red and the spines were venemous. They were also fierce predators and were fed live minnows. i know there was a confirmed catch in Loch Ine( I think I've spelt it wrong) near skiberene in the early 90's. I must say the fish you caught looks seems similar.

[BigPhil]

cheers guys, and thanks davy i must try and get the hold of that book! :wink:

[squalus]

The best identification book I know of is "Fishes of the British Isles and North-west Europe" by Alwyne Wheeler but its not cheap