The category of fish includes any cold-blooded animal with a vertebrate that lives entirely in water and has gills and fins. For the purpose of this collection, the “Fish” property includes traditional fish; we are excluding odd shaped swimmers (eels, rays, etc) and sharks from this category.

Total Available Fish: 134

These two types of animals are mollusks, soft bodied creatures that lack a shell. Nudibranch traditionally has a feathery like tuft near it’s rear end, which are it’s external lungs. Both are gastropods.

Total Available Nudibranch: 46

Total Available Sea Slugs: 7

Shrimps are small crustaceans that can free swim. They typically have a long body, many legs, and antennae. This collection features shrimp smaller than 1 cm up to over an inch long.

Total Available Shrimp: 22

Crabs are crustaceans of varying sizes; they have a wide body, eye stocks, a set of pinchers, and 4 pairs of legs.

Total Available Crabs: 21

Eels are technically fish with poorly developed fins. They have a long snakelike body and sharp teeth. They tend to hide in the reef during the day and hunt at night.

Total Available Eels: 17

Lobsters are large crustaceans with a hard shell on their long body. Their eyes are on stalks and they have large pinchers and 4 pairs of legs.

Total Available Lobsters: 17

Sting rays and manta rays are technically fish; however, instead of fins, they have a flat disk-like body and their skeletal system is primarily cartilage. They have no teeth and their gills and mouth are on their underside.

Total Available Rays: 15

Wrecks are identified as any sunken vessel, from ships to aircraft. Only one photo in this collection was an actual shipwreck; typically decommissioned ships are cleaned to environmental standards and to protect divers, and sunk intentionally to create an artificial reef.

Total Available Wrecks: 14

Mantis shrimp are crustaceans, but they are not actually shrimp. They come in many colors, have 6 lenses in their eyes, and large front legs that resemble a praying mantis. They are savage predators; there are spearing mantis shrimp and smashing mantis shrimp. The punch of a smashing mantis is delivered with the same force as a .22 caliber bullet.

Total Available Mantis Shrimp: 13

Octopus are cephalopods with 8 arms, each equipped with hundreds of suckers. They have an internal beak and each of their arms has the ability to “think” independently. They can change their color and texture in order to camouflage and are considered to be one of the smartest animals on the planet.

Total Available Octopus: 13

Sharks are also technically fish; they have a long body, prominent dorsal fin and a cartilaginous skeleton. They have rough scales and are fierce predators, although the largest species (whale shark) feeds primarily on plankton. Sharks are typically non-aggressive toward humans and usually only bite due to curiosity.

Total Available Sharks: 13

Sea turtles are marine reptiles with hard shells and large flippers. They cannot retract into their shells the way land turtles can and they require surfacing for breaths of air. The females will only come to land annually to lay eggs once mature, usually around 20-25 years old. All 7 species of sea turtles are endangered and they are protected from poaching worldwide.

Total Available Turtles: 12

Starfish are hard skinned echinoderms that have at least 5 arms and come in a wide variety of shapes and colors. On the underside of their arms are tube-like feet that they can use to “crawl” and open the shells of mollusks. They are able to regenerate limbs that have been severed.

Total Available Starfish: 10

For the purpose of this collection, this group contains marine life with a seashell-like body. This includes bivalves such as clams and scallops, flamingo tongues, and conch. These types of animals are mollusks with a soft body and hard external shell.

Total Available Bivalves: 9

Total Available Flamingo Tongues: 6

Total Available Conch: 3

These two types of animals are very similar and are often mistaken for one another. Both are cephalopods with 8 arms and 2 long tentacles. Both are able to change color. Squid have a long, torpedo-like body, a feather shaped internal bone, and round pupils. Cuttlefish have a chubbier appearance, a broad internal cuttlebone, and a “W” shaped pupil. They can also change their texture as well as color.

Total Available Squid: 9

Total Available Cuttlefish: 8

This category includes warm blooded animals with a vertebrate, that must breathe air through lungs, have hair at some point, and produce milk for their young, just like land mammals! The only difference is that marine mammals live their lives in or near the ocean. For this collection, we have included dolphins, sea lions, and whales.

Total Available Dolphins: 7

Total Available Sea Lions: 4

Total Available Whales: 1

Seahorses are another odd shaped fish! They have long, armored bodies, tiny fins, a curled tail that they use to grip corals, and a head like a horse. They swim upright and typically eat plankton and small crustaceans; they can reportedly eat over 3000 brine shrimp per day!

Total Available Seahorses: 7

This category encompasses a variety of marine worms, each with different classifications. Flatworms resemble sea slugs but are not considered a mollusk. Fireworms are a venomous, segmented worm. Tube worms are actually part of the reef structure and live within it.

Total Available Flatworms: 6

Total Available Fireworms: 2

Total Available Tube Worms: tbd

Sea cucumbers are a diverse group of inverebrates with hard skin. They are distantly related to starfish, but are squishier and with more leather-like skin. They have no eyes or face; they are basically a digestive track with holes at both ends. Some sea cucumbers have anal teeth to deter other animals from entering.

Total Available Sea Cucumbers: 5

Jellyfish are not actually fish, but simple free-swimming invertebrates often with sheer bodies. Many of the over 200 species are equipped with venomous tentacles that are capable of stinging prey.

Total Available Jellyfish: 4