English: Lionfish; Mail-cheeked fishes.
Synonym: Scleroparei.
Genera: 1320 species.
Habitat: on the sea bottom, in shallow waters, some in deep water; midwater, and even from fresh water.
ZologyRay-finned fish; suborbital stay: a backwards extension of the third circumorbital bone, part of the lateral head/cheek skeleton, below the eye socket, across the cheek to the preoperculum, to which it is connected in most species.
Fins: spiny heads; rounded pectoral and caudal fins.
Food: carnivorous, crustaceans, smaller fish.Size: up to 30 cm long, 2 cm to 150 cm.
TaxonomyOne of the five largest orders of bony fishes.
FamiliesSuborder Anoplopomatoidei
• Anoplopomatidae: Sablefish, Skilfish.
Suborder Cottoidei
Superfamily Cottoidea
• Abyssocottidae: Deep-water sculpins.
• Agonidae: Poachers.
• Bathylutichthyidae
• Comephoridae: Baikal oilfishes.
• Cottidae
• Cottocomephoridae (Baikal sculpins.
• Ereuniidae: Deepwater bullhead sculpins.
• Hemitripteridae: Sea ravens.
• Icelidae: Scaled sculpins.
• Psychrolutidae: Fathead sculpins.
• Rhamphocottidae: Grunt sculpin.
Superfamily Cyclopteroidea
• Cyclopteridae: lumpsuckers.
• Liparidae: Snailfishes.
Suborder Hexagrammoidei
• Hexagrammidae: Greenlings.
Suborder Normanichthyiodei
• Normanichthyidae: Mote sculpin.
Suborder Platycephaloidei
• Bembridae: Deepwater flatheads.
• Hoplichthyidae: Ghost flatheads.
• Parabembridae
• Peristediidae: Armored searobins.
• Platycephalidae: Flatheads.
Suborder Scorpaenoidei
• Apistidae: Wasp scorpionfishes.
• Aploactinidae: Velvetfishes.
• Caracanthidae: Orbicular velvetfishes.
• Congiopodidae: Horsefishes and pigfishes.
• Eschmeyeridae
• Gnathanacanthidae: Red velvetfish.
• Neosebastidae: Gurnard scorpionfishes.
• Pataecidae: Australian prowfishes.
• Perryenidae: Whitenose pigfish.
• Plectrogenidae
•
Scorpaenidae: Scorpionfishes.
•
Sebastidae: Sea perches.
• Setarchidae: Deep-sea bristly scorpionfishes.
• Synanceiidae: including the stonefishes.
• Tetrarogidae: Waspfishes.
• Triglidae: Searobins.