On Friday Florida will witness a ban on the import of all lionfish as they have been negatively impacting the ecosystem in a variety of ways so much as that they have been compared to pythons.

According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the first lionfish was reported in Florida in 1985. Since then its population in the whole area has exploded. Their exact number is believe to be somewhere in millions as the species has spread on much of the Atlantic coastline, including South America.

Lionfish is a spiny, striped fish which is popular in aquariums due to its looks but when it comes to ecosystem it is considered as an invasive species due to its negative impact on the ecosystem. They are natives of the Indo-Pacific region and the Red Sea. Their presence in the Atlantic coast is because of intentional or unintentional release of imported species and it is largely believed that these fish were released there by people who had them as pets.

The ban on further import was implemented considering that Lionfish eat all the prey that grouper and snapper would have consumed. Besides eating the prey, they also eat species that help keep the habitat in check, such as Parrot fish, which consume algae, as well as marine life that is recreationally important, such as small, colorful fish that divers and snorklers like to look at around reefs.

Releasing even a handful of fish could have caused the whole problem as lionfish grow quickly and reproduce early and often. According to REEF and NOAA, these fish produce about 15,000 eggs every four days. This enables the fish to have long lifespan and so they can live for decades.

"The genetics have been traced back to just a few founding fish that started this entire invasion", said Lad Akins, Director of special projects for REEF which is a conservation group that studies marine ecosystems.