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Do you have know about alien or exotic species?
Alien or exotic species are non native species that could be animals, plants or other organism which may cause several damages into the ecosystems and became a plague harming the economy and affecting the human health.
In marine ecosystems many species of invertebrates, fishes and algae could be non native and the human activities as aquarium trade, ballast water and others have brought these non native species.
One example of most recent alien among reef fishes is the lion fish from Family Scorpaenidae (e.g. Pterois volitans) in Caribbean sea. This alien reef fish was registered in Atlantic Ocean in 1985 near Dania Florida. Also the lion fish invasion was record in a accidental realize of some lion fish from aquarium during Hurricane Andrew, Walter Courtney that was quoted in 2010 where was saying he would like to "put this idea to rest".
Today this invasive species is dominating most of reefs of Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean sea and Gulf of Mexico with some records for South Atlantic. The main problem of this beautiful and dangerous species for Atlantic ocean is that this fish has a great capacity of reproduction, is a top predator of fishes and invertebrates and don't have predator for this species. The biological strategies of this invasive species have caused several damages to reef ecosystems reducing coral cover and native reef fishes.

To know more about the invasion of lion fish in marine ecosystems click on the links bellow and enjoy!

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