Ocean Realm

Blackcheek Tonguefish

Named for the black spot near its gill opening, the blackcheek tonguefish is a small, flat fish with a curved mouth and two small eyes on the left side of their body; it is commonly found resting eye-side up on soft sediment. Juveniles occur in shallow marshes and estuaries, with adults moving to deeper water as they grow, though typically less than 100 feet. Mature adults spawn inshore and move shore afterward.

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Lyretail Anthias

The birds of the reef, lyretail anthias can often be found congregating in large schools above the coral, fluttering their pectoral fins allowing them to hover almost motionless. Male anthias are typically bigger and more colorful than females, though both are among the most beautiful fish on the reef.

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Longnosed Batfish

Longnosed batfish are some of the most unusual looking fish. They don’t swim well, instead they spend most of their time using their thick pectoral fins to “walk” slowly on the sea floor. Typically found solitary over sand or other soft substrate, they will often cover themselves with sand to rest and hide, and seem to prefer small boulders or crevices to hide next to.

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Purple Sea Urchin

Purple sea urchins can sometimes be found in large groups, especially around the bases of giant kelp, which as they eat through the stems can be devastating to the kelp forests, leaving all of the species that rely on the kelp without a home.

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Spotted Garden Eel

Spotted garden eels are often found on sandy slopes with strong currents in colonies of several hundred or even thousands of individuals. These eels use their muscular tail to dig into the sandy seafloor, then secrete a slimy mucus that acts like cement to keep their burrows from caving in. During the day, they orient their head into the current and wait for passing zooplankton to flow by. When alarmed, garden eels withdraw tail-first into the holes they’ve created to avoid predators. Shy and cautious, they will slowly extend their heads out of the burrow once the danger has passed.

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Weedy Scorpionfish

The weedy scorpionfish is a master of camouflage. Not only do they look like a piece of algae with their intricate patterns and leafy appendages, but they will even sway back and forth, mimicking a piece of algae on the bottom, allowing them to remain undetected by predators and prey. Most active at night, the weedy scorpionfish may wait in one spot for days for an unsuspecting fish or invertebrate to stray too close before striking with lightning speed, using their large mouths to engulf their meal whole.

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Zebra Moray

The zebra moray can be found holed up in crevices and under ledges on the wave-swept outer edges of coral reefs. It comes out to hunt at night, prowling the reefs for crabs, clams, and other hard-shelled prey. Their teeth are blunt and molar-like, designed for crushing, not sharp and needle-like for snagging fish as in other moray species.

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Neon Goby

The neon goby has symbiotic relationships with other marine creatures. The fish remove ectoparasites from other marine creatures' bodies and, in return, receive an easy meal.

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Copperband Butterflyfish

This beautiful fish can easily be identified by its tube-like mouth, gold bands and black eyespot on the dorsal fin; the copperband butteflyfish is usually a peaceful reef inhabitant seen alone or in monogamous pairs, but can also be found in turbid inshore areas near river estuaries.

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Sea Walnut

The Sea Walnut is a planktonic organism that drifts in the water column, using rows of beating, hairlike combs of cilia for movement and feeding. When feeding, they swim in a spiral pattern, searching for other comb jelly species, chemically sensing when they are nearby. When prey items are plentiful, the Sea Walnut may eat four times its body weight daily!

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