Miles lionfish or regular violatin lionfish ?

[damzep831]

Hey, was wondering if this was a miles or violatin lionfish? If so I believe miles stay a little smaller?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Hey, was wondering if this was a miles or violatin lionfish? If so I believe miles stay a little smaller?

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

You really cannot tell these two species apart by coloration - way too much variation.

Soft fin ray counts can be used, but there is about 10% overlap with those. Miles tend to have 10 soft dorsal rays and 6 anal fin rays while volitions tend to have 11 and 7.

If you know where the fish came from (not if it is from the Atlantic) Miles are Indian Ocean / Red Sea and volitions are Indonesia eastward. There is probably some range overlap around Malaysia.