1. Outside Fish Parts

2. Body Shape
By looking at the overall shape of a fish, you can get an idea of where they live within the aquatic environment, how they swim and what they typically eat

3. Surface swimmers
Fish that live at the surface usually have a flattened back and an upturned mouth.

4. Open water/ slow movers
Fish that live in open water have round bodies very compressed side to side.
Cast almost no shadow, invisible in the water
Turn fast – live in groups
Mouths for eating tiny plankton or filtering water

5. Bottom fish Two forms of fish
Bottom that eat down
Bottom that eat up
Mouth direction and eyes tells you what it is eating

6. Bottom fish – eat down
Round bodies that are bottom oriented but able to swim along it
They are mostly bottom feeders – some eat live things, some just the waste. The teeth would let you know
“hide” by being sand/rock colored and tend to move slow to “sniff” around and not attract attention.
Tend to have small eyes

7. Bottom fish – eat up Flattened bodies Face is orientated up
Sharp teeth
Hide and “strike” up at things.

8. Fast swimming, open water
In fast moving waters a slender, torpedo shape is better
Speed to run down prey.
Except for shark they tend to swallow whole, no teeth

9. In and around “structure”
General “all around” function.
Fat and Wide Bodies
“generallist”
Mouth and teeth could tell you what they eat.
Colored like what they live around

10. Lie and wait, hide and lunge
Like “in structure”, but more specialized for lunging out at things.
All tail power focused posterior, like an arrow!
Not good long distance swimmers.

11. Eel-like body
This long body shape is perfect for moving through small spaces: especially holes and caves
But it is a poor swimmer in open water
Type of mouth and teeth would tell you what it eats.

12. Mouth types tell you where it eats

13. Superior Mouth Points up Feeds at the surface
Often paired with a flat back

14. Terminal Mouth Located at the end of the body Usually feeds midwater
“Normal” mouth
Eat things in front of them

15. Inferior Mouth Located ventrally Usually bottom feeders
Often accompanied by barbels
Used for locating food

16. Teeth tell you WHAT it eats:
NO teeth or tiny “sandpaper” teeth = swallow whole, teeth just keep it in
Flat blunt =crushing something’s shell
Sharp but broad teeth = chipping things off
Carnivore teeth = meat
Feathery teeth = filtering tiny plankton/algae/etc.

17. Caudal Fin: Tail, tells us how it swims.
The caudal fin, or tail, is used for propulsion, or movement, in most fish species.

18. Lunate Tails Fishes with lunate are strong, fast swimmers.
They are capable of swimming for long periods of time

19. Forked Tails
Fish that spend a lot of time swimming often have forked tails, but they are not as fast as the “lunate” tails.

20. Truncate and Rounded Tails
Fishes with truncate or rounded caudal fins are usually strong, slow swimmers.
Fishes that live near the reef often have this type of tail because it aids in maneuverability.
Rounded

21. Heterocercal Tail
A tail with a long upper lobe and a shorter lower lobe
Common in Sharks
Provides more thrust on top of fin than bottom, helps keep sharks up in the water.

22. Eel-like Tail
The propulsive force for a fish with this type of tail begins in the trunk of the body and moves as a wave down through the tail.
This shape is great for fitting into holes and tunnels.

23. Tarpon Megalops atlanticus

24. Yellow Tail Snapper Ocyurus chrysurus

25. Atlantic Sturgeon Acipenser oxyrhinchus

26. Long Nose Gar Lepisosteus osseus

27. Rock fish

28. Sheepshead (convict fish)

29. Yellowfin Tuna Thunnus albacares

30. Channel Catfish Ictalurus punctatus

31. Flat head (yellow) Catfish

32. Majestic Angelfish Pomacanthus navarchus

33. Juvenile Tiger Shark Galeocerdo cuvier

34. Ocellated Moray Eel Gymnothorax saxicola

35. Parrot fish