Fish

Find out everything there is to know about fish and stay updated on the latest news with the comprehensive articles, interactive features and fish pictures at LiveScience.com. Learn more about these fascinating creatures as scientists continue to make amazing discoveries about fish.

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A tongue-eating louse, or isopod (purple) became this fish's living tongue.

Meet the 'vampire' parasite that masquerades as a living tongue

By Mindy Weisberger

Digital models of a fish skull revealed a parasitic stowaway inside its mouth: a "tongue biter" isopod that consumed and then replaced the fish's tongue.

Tiny larval sunfish look nothing like the adults.

Adorable, bug-size sunfish babies grow up to be giant 'swimming heads'

By Mindy Weisberger

Scientists have identified the larvae of one of the world's biggest fishes — the bump-head sunfish (Mola alexandrini) — and the youngster is ridiculously tiny.

The sturddlefish has a mix of genes from the Russian sturgeon and the American paddlefish.

Scientists accidentally create 'impossible' hybrid fish

By Stephanie Pappas

Hungarian scientists accidentally created a hybrid of a Russian sturgeon and an American paddlefish, leading to a long-nosed "sturddlefish" baby.

The red handfish, a cousin of the now-extinct smooth handfish.

RIP, smooth handfish. You were weird, and now you’re extinct.

By Laura Geggel

This extinct fish used its hand-like fins to "walk" on the ocean floor.

Ophichthidae is a family of sinuous fishes that are also known as snake eels. The species pictured here, Aprognathodon platyventris, is found in the western Atlantic Ocean.

Snake eels stage stomach-bursting escape after being eaten (and then things get really nasty)

By Mindy Weisberger

After snake eels are swallowed by bigger fish, they can burst out of their predators' stomachs ... to freedom? Not exactly.

A painting of the 45-million-year-old saber-toothed anchovy Monosmilus chureloides chasing a shoal of smaller anchovies … until the early whale Dalanistes snaps it up.

Ancient 'shapeshifting vampire demon' anchovy had saber tooth and fangs

By Laura Geggel

An anchovy cousin had fang-like teeth on the bottom jaw and one giant saber tooth on the top.

Rare pink manta ray caught courting lady friend Down Under

By Laura Geggel

Photos of a bright pink manta ray have gone viral after the Pepto-Bismol-colored creature was spotted swimming near Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

Lamprologus lethops, a fish that lives in the lower Congo River, is pale and blind like fish that dwell in caves deep underwater.

Dying Fish Revealed Congo Is World's Deepest River

By Mindy Weisberger

The turbulent lower Congo River, home to hundreds of fish species, is not only Earth's deepest river; it also presents biologists with an intriguing window into evolution.

A colorful blue and red betta fish against a black background.

Betta Fish: The Dazzling Siamese Fighting Fish

By Jeremy Rehm

Reference Article: Facts about betta fish.

A school of scalloped hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna lewini) swims in the Galapagos.

What If There Were No Sharks?

By Mindy Weisberger

Scary portrayals of great whites in pop culture might lead some people to wonder if the world would be better off with no sharks at all.

50-Million-Year-Old Fossil Shows School of Baby Fish in Their Final Moments

By Brandon Specktor

Baby fish swam in schools 50 million years ago, according to this remarkable fossil held in a Japanese museum.

Coral Reefs Have 'Halos,' and They Can Be Seen from the Heavens

By Mindy Weisberger

What's the story behind reefs' mysterious "halos" of empty sand?

Photos: Cretaceous 'Graveyard' Holds a Snapshot of the Dino-Killing Asteroid Impact

By Mindy Weisberger

A fossil site in North Dakota preserves a unique snapshot of the minutes after an asteroid struck Earth around 66 million years ago.

Fossil 'Death Pit' Preserves Dino Extinction Event … But Where Are the Dinosaurs?

By Mindy Weisberger

What happened after the Cretaceous-ending asteroid struck Earth? A new fossil site may have answers.

Giant, Weird-Looking Fish With 'Startled' Eyes Washes Up on Aussie Beach

By Laura Geggel

Sunfish Bigger Than a Hot Tub Got Lost and Washed Up in the Wrong Hemisphere

By Laura Geggel

A fish so mysterious that scientists named it the "hoodwinker" because it had eluded them for decades has washed ashore in California, thousands of miles from its home in the Southern Hemisphere.