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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Paddleboarder Matt Wheaton stands on a paddleboard over a giant mola at Laguna Beach, California.

Enormous sunfish surprises paddleboarders off Laguna Beach

By Laura Geggel published

Two paddleboarders encountered a colossal sunfish in Laguna Beach, California.

Fisherman Martin Glatz poses with the banana-yellow catfish before releasing it back into the water.

Extremely rare, bright-yellow catfish caught in the Netherlands

By Brandon Specktor published

Fishers in the Netherlands caught an enormous, bright-yellow catfish recently. The species is common, but the yellow body may be the result of a genetic disorder.

Angler Tom Bosworth holds the tortilla-like fish he caught before throwing it back into Tampa Bay.

'What the heck is that?' Florida angler catches 'tortilla fish.'

By Laura Geggel published

An angler fishing in Tampa Bay was surprised to reel in an unusual fish that looked just like a flour tortilla.

A 100-pound opah, also known as a moonfish, washed up on a beach near Sunset Beach in northern Oregon on July 14.

Majestic 100-pound moonfish washes up on Oregon beach

By Harry Baker published

A 100-pound opah fish, also known as a moonfish, was recently found washed up on a beach in Oregon hundreds of miles from its normal habitat.

Coelacanths at different life stages.

This 'ancient' monster fish may live for 100 years

By Laura Geggel published

A detailed look at coelacanths' scales reveals that this ancient lineage of fish may live to be 100 years old.

A snowflake moray eel prepares to swallow a squid snack.

These eels can swallow prey on land, thanks to extendable jaws in their throats

By Mindy Weisberger published

Most marine creatures get their meals in the water, but snowflake moray eels have a strange adaptation that lets them grab and swallow prey on land, too.

The bizarre-looking coelacanth fish was long thought to be extinct until one was discovered in 1938.

Madagascar may be a secret stronghold for 'living fossil' fish

By Stephanie Pappas published

Madagascar may be the ancestral home of coelacanths, 'living fossil' fish once thought to have gone extinct.

A member of the Alpena Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office survey crew lays down beside the 6 foot 10 inch lake sturgeon, which was pulled from the Detroit River.

7-foot 'monster' sturgeon found in Detroit River could be over 100 years old

By Harry Baker published

Scientists surveying the Detroit River caught a monstrous sturgeon weighing 240 pounds (109 kilograms) and measuring 6 feet 10 inches (2.1 meters) in length.

A 16-foot-long (4.9 meters) female sawfish washed ashore in the Florida Keys last week.

Largest recorded smalltooth sawfish washes up dead in Florida

By Stephanie Pappas published

The longest sawfish ever measured washed up in Florida, not far from another large specimen.

The arapaima, one of the world's largest freshwater fish, is native to the Amazon River.

Amazon 'river monster' turns up dead in Florida

By Laura Geggel published

A dead "river monster" from the Amazon was discovered in Florida, leading to concerns that the fish might become an invasive species there.

A juvenile shortfin mako shark with a stab wound in his head washed ashore in Los Cabos, Mexico.

Shark gets stabbed in the head, washes ashore in Los Cabos

By Laura Geggel published

Dead sharks usually sink, so it's surprising to find one washed up onshore.

Seaside sparrow nests that are close to the ground are prone to flooding. But in nests that are higher up, chicks may be vulnerable to terrestrial predators.

Video captures unusual death of baby bird drowned by a fish

By Mindy Weisberger published

Scientists recently captured video documenting the first reported instance of a fish preying on a newly-hatched baby bird, in a flooded nest in coastal Georgia.

The Australasian flying fish, Cheilopogon pinnatibarbatus melanocercus, gliding over the water.

Flying fish: Real fish, but not really flying

By Sarah Wild published

Key facts and information about flying fish.

A birthday celebration helped sad grouper Mikko turn that frown upside down.

Famous fish that ate all his friends gets cheered up by 16th birthday party

By Mindy Weisberger published

Happy 16th birthday to Mikko the grouper, a popular aquarium fish in Finland who missed his human visitors during the COVID-19 shutdown.

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 published

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 published

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 published

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 published

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 published

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 published

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