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MEET THE ANIMALS

Animal Encyclopedia

Learn about aquatic species

Mote scientists work with many of these species to learn more about their roles in marine ecosystems and how to conserve their populations. You can even visit some of these species at Mote! Click on each species to learn more.

Species Type

Exhibit Location

352 Results

Corals, Invertebrates

Acan lord coral

Acan lord corals range in color from red, orange and purple to blue and green. They have thick, bumpy ridges on their corallites...

Alligator snapping turtle

Uniquely, alligator snapping turtles are the only species of turtle to have eyes positioned on the side of their head. This widens...

American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) in Myakka River State Park, Florida

American alligator

American alligators are endemic to the United States, meaning they don’t exist anywhere else in the world. More specifically,...

Corals, Invertebrates

Angular sea whip

Angular sea whips have large, bushy and flat branches originating from a single base. They can range in color from gray and purple...

Arrow crab

Arrow crabs have abnormally long spider-like legs and a pointy head. Their bodies are yellow-brown in color with white and brown...

Corals, Invertebrates

Artichoke coral

Artichoke corals can be green, brown, red, tan or bright orange in color. They’re attached at the base to various hard surfaces...

Atlantic blue tang

Atlantic blue tangs are entirely light blue in color and pancake-shaped. They have a spine at the base of their tails used to...

Atlantic deer cowrie

Atlantic deer cowries are aquatic snails that reside in benthic environments. These snails are broadcast spawners, meaning they...

Atlantic guitarfish

Atlantic guitarfish are long and smooth fish. They have long, diamond-shaped faces and a set of triangular pectoral fins right...

Atlantic Sea Nettle

Atlantic sea nettle

Closely related, bay and sea nettles differ in a few minuscule ways. Bay nettles are half the size of the sea nettles and typically...

Freshwater Florida

Fishes, Sharks & Rays

Atlantic stingray

Atlantic stingrays prefer to live in brackish or freshwater environments, burying themselves under silt and sand of estuaries,...

Australian Spotted Jellyfish

Australian spotted jellyfish

Australian spotted jellyfish have gelatinous, rounded heads that can vary in color from clear to brown depending on their environment....

Australian stripey

The Australian stripey has a small, round body with distinct diagonal black and yellow striping. They have small faces and large...

Axolotl in Mote's Oh Baby Exhibit

Axolotl

Axolotls exist in a variety of colors, ranging from dark browns and greens to albino (pinkish-white). They have feathery gills...

Azure damselfish

Azure damselfish are two-toned, with a bright blue upper half and an orange-yellow bottom half. They have a fanned dorsal fin,...

Children Touching Animals at Contact Cove

Bahama sea star

Bahama sea star

Coral Banded Shrimp

Banded coral shrimp

Banded coral shrimp have extremely long antennae, red and white banded legs and body and two small claws.

Banded sunfish

Banded sunfish have yellow-tan bodies with five to seven dark vertical bars. They have rounded tail fins, pointed and upturned...

Banded tulip snail

These snails have shiny, marbled shells with gray, brown, yellow and white coloration. They have purple-brown spiral bands wrapping...

Barred angelfish

Barred angelfish get their name from the dark black bars that run vertically from their head to the very tip of their tail. They...

Barred hamlet

Barred hamlet are yellow-white with six brown bars running vertically starting at the eye. They have an iridescent blue ring around...

Bay sea star

The bay sea star range in color from yellow-orange to deep purple. They have short tube feet on the underside of their five pointed...

Beaugregory

Beaugregory fish are hard to miss with their bright blue crowns and yellow bellies. Juveniles have a dark spot where the dorsal...

Aquarium Photos

Belted sandfish

Belted sandfish

Bermuda blue angelfish

Bermuda blue angelfish are hard to miss in reef communities with their bright blue and yellow coloring. Their bright colors making...

Bermuda chub

Bermuda chubs have oval, gray-silver bodies with highlights of yellow along their faces. Young Bermuda chubs have lighter gray...

Bicolored foxface

The bicolored foxface fish is a small, strikingly colored species. The front two-thirds of its body features a deep blue-black...

Bignose unicornfish

Bignose unicornfish are long and oval-shaped. They are yellow-brown in color with highlights of bright blue alone their snout,...

Birdled parrotfish

Along the coasts of Australia and throughout the Pacific, birdled parrotfish live in tropical coral reef colonies.

Aquarium Photos

Black boring sea urchin

Black boring sea urchins are less round and more elliptical (oval) shaped. They have anywhere from 100-150 short, thick spines...

Black crappie

Black crappies are small, compressed fish with black mottling pattern on their silvery-white bodies. Their fins and forked tail...

Black drum

The black drum is the largest species of drum. They have a highly arched back. Their backs are gray or black, and fade to a white...

Black mangrove

Black mangroves are native coastal plants. Despite its name, black mangroves have green leaves that are long and slender in shape....

Corals, Invertebrates

Black sea rod

Black sea rods have short branches ranging in color from black and purple to green and yellow. Their branches have white polyps....

Black snook

Black snook have silvery-gray bodies with a single black line from their heads to their black tails.

Black triggerfish

Black durgon fish are round and blue in color with highlights of yellow near the face. Irregular striping runs from their face...

Fishes, Sharks & Rays

Black-spotted whiptail ray

Black-spotted whiptail rays are light grayish-brown on top, densely covered in dark spots surrounded with a ring of white. Their...

Blackbanded sunfish

Blackbanded sunfish have silvery-olive bodies with irregular, dark striping, including through their eyes. They have fanned dorsal...

Blackcap basslet

Blackcap basslets get their name from the large black spot on their head. Their bodies range in color from dark purple at the...

Blackfin tuna

Blackfin tuna are a migratory species, and are an important species to commercial and recreational fisheries. They have torpedo-shaped...

Blacknose shark

These sharks get their name from the dark spot on the tip of their snout. As they get older, the black spot fades and becomes...

Blacksmith

Also called the blacksmith chromis, this species of damselfish is dark blue to blackish with darker black spots on the backside...

Sharks & Rays, Fishes

Blacktip reef shark

Blacktip reef sharks have silvery-gray dorsal sides and white bellies. Eluded to in their name, these reef sharks have dark black...

Bladdertipped anemone

Bladdertipped anemones have smooth bases that are usually brown, green or red in color. Attached to the base are long, cylindrical...

Blonde naso tang

Blonde naso tangs range in color from pale gray to dark charcoal gray. Some call this fish species “orangespine surgeonfish”...

Blue chromis

Blue chromis are primarily blue in color with a dark stripe near their dorsal fin, large black eyes and a forked tail.

Blue Parrotfish

Blue parrotfish

Blue parrotfish are a larger species of parrotfish, and adults are entirely blue. As juveniles, their coloration starts out as...

Blue razorfish

Blue razorfish have rounded, blunt faces and strong jaws for crushing shelled prey. At the top of their head, they have a spine...