Scorpionfish behaving badly

These two photographs were taken by Stephen Coutts and Nicolas and Léna Remy.

Both observations show aggressive behaviour between two male Eastern Red Scorpionfish at Bare Island, Botany Bay on 2 December 2017.

Stephen stated that they went head to head, banging heads then biting each other.

When asked about this behaviour, scorpionfish expert Dr Hiroyuki Motomura stated, "This is typical behaviour for scorpionfishes. Males fight each other to protect their territories (especially in the breeding season)." He also stated that after reading the descriptions for each observation, "I can say, that "discussion and conversation" had finished and the fish had started to use force."

Erik Schlögl saw these observations and added another observation of Eastern Red Scorpionfish fighting that was taken further up the coast just over a year earlier

Thanks everyone! Please keep uploading your fascinating observations of fishes behaving badly.