LiveScience Image Gallery

Freaky Fish

Photo: NOAA

Parrotfish

Here is a close-up of the brightly colored parrotfish supermale. Click to enlarge.
Photo: NOAA

Bat fish

Bat-fish, wearing too much make-up, poses to intimidate. Click to enlarge.
Photo: NOAA

Scorpionfish

The Scorpionfish's ugly visage allows it to hide in northern seaweed beds. Click to enlarge.
Photo: Channel Islands NMS

California sheephead

You might find a California sheephead (Semicossyphus pulcher) like this one roaming the rocky reefs and kelp forests that line the shore from the Channel Islands to Monterey. Amazingly, sheephead are all born females! It is only later in life that all of the fish will go through a change that transforms them into males. Click to enlarge.
Photo: Gulf of the Farallones NMS

Ocean sunfish

A giant ocean sunfish, or mola mola, cruises slowly through the water column. At the surface these unusual-looking fish will sometimes be mistaken for a shark because of their tall dorsal fins. Click to enlarge.
Photo: NOAA

Scrawled filefish

A scrawled filefish swims through the ocean waters. Click to enlarge.
Photo: NOAA

Manta ray

The picture shows a Manta ray swimming alongside a diver. Click to enlarge.
Photo: Daniel Gotshall

Torpedo ray

Torpedo rays (Torpedo californica) are identifiable by their flat gray bodies and black spots. Interestingly, these animals catch their prey by stunning them with a jolt! Click to enlarge.
Photo: NOAA

Moray eel

A ‘head-on view’ photograph of a green moray eel. Click to enlarge.
Photo: NOAA

Goosefish

Shown above is a photograph of a Goosefish laying camouflaged on a northern rocky reef. Click to enlarge.
Photo: Channel Islands NMS

Bat rays

Bat rays (Myliobatis californica) like this one are truly graceful creatures who are normally 4 to 5 feet across but have been reported with "wingspans" of 8 feet. They live up to 24 years and are armed with a defensive barb on the end of their tail. Female bat rays grow larger, are faster, and live longer than males. Click to enlarge.
Photo: NOAA

Queen angelfish

Queen angelfish is shown swimming near a reef. Click to enlarge.
Photo: Chris Huss - Florida Keys NMS

Butterfly fish

The four-eye butterfly fish (Chaetodon capistratus) is one of hundreds of fish species which inhabit the reef environment of the Florida Keys. The butterfly fish mates for life and therefore you will often see two of them. If you can imagine two butterfly fish nose to nose, they look like a butterfly. It is easy to see how they got their name. Click to enlarge.
Photo: Frank and Joyce Burek

Scrawled cowfish

Scrawled cowfish (Lactophrys quadricornis) - a member of the boxfish family. Click to enlarge.
Photo: NOAA

Wolf-eels

Wolf-eels, Anarrhichthys ocellatus, have powerful jaws for crushing bivalves. Click to enlarge.
Photo: Frank and Joyce Burek

Smooth trunk fish

The smooth trunk fish (Lactophrys triqueter) is usually black and white in color, but at the Flower Gardens, Texas A&M University fish biologist, Dr. Christy Pattengill-Semmens, has documented the discovery of this unusual color morph of the fish - now called the golden-phase smooth trunk fish. A specimen of the fish was collected to verify that in fact it was not a new species. It has only been reported at the Flower Garden and Stetson Banks. Click to enlarge.
Photo: Karen Angle

Leopard toadfish

The leopard toadfish (Opsanus pardus) has a large, flat head and a large mouth with fleshy projections around it. They spend most of their time under a rock or crevice and feed mostly on mollusks and crustaceans. Click to enlarge.
Photo: NOAA

Lingcod

Lingcod, Ophiodon elongates, a rare fish found on the west coast of North America, are an important commercial and recreational fish species. Click to enlarge.
Photo: NOAA

Codfish

Juvenile codfish caught in a gill net. Click to enlarge.
Photo: Frank and Joyce Burek

Jackknife fish

Jackknife fish (Equetus lanceolatus) are not commonly seen in the ocean. As juveniles, they are often misidentified as spotted drum - the drum has a spot on its' nose rather than the vertical stripe on the jackknife fish. Click to enlarge.

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