Fish Directory

1 · Disks & Ovals — the colorful crowd

Butterflyfish, angelfish & surgeonfish — the flat, round, brightly painted fish that hug the rocks.

Threebanded Butterflyfish

Chaetodon humeralis

Costa Rica's most common butterflyfish — a silvery, disk-shaped fish crossed by dark bars, usually seen gliding in pairs as it picks along the rocks.

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Longnose Butterflyfish

Forcipiger flavissimus

Bright lemon-yellow with a long, tweezer-like snout it uses to pluck tiny food out of reef crevices. Hard to miss against the dark rocks.

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Barberfish

Johnrandallia nigrirostris

A pale butterflyfish with a dark "mask" and tail bar. It runs cleaning stations, nibbling parasites off bigger fish that line up to wait their turn.

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King Angelfish

Holacanthus passer

A showstopper — deep blue-black body crossed by a single bright white bar, with a golden tail. One of the signature angelfish of the Eastern Pacific.

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Cortez Angelfish

Pomacanthus zonipectus

Adults are gray and gold with sweeping bands; young ones are jet-black with electric yellow-and-blue stripes. Spotting a juvenile is a real treat.

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Clarion Angelfish

Holacanthus clarionensis

A warm orange-brown angelfish from the offshore islands — rarer and prized, so every sighting feels like a small reward.

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Yellowtail Surgeonfish

Prionurus punctatus

Named for its bright yellow tail. Surgeonfish carry a tiny scalpel-sharp spine near the tail — lovely to watch, best admired without touching.

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Convict Tang

Acanthurus triostegus

A small silvery surgeonfish wearing six dark "prison" bars. They graze algae off the rocks in busy, roving groups.

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Moorish Idol

Zanclus cornutus

Unmistakable — bold black, white and yellow bands and a long trailing dorsal streamer. One of the most elegant fish on the reef.

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Representative photos of each Eastern Pacific species, via Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons licenses (CC BY / CC BY-SA): Diego Delso, Paul & Jill, László Ilyés, Coughdrop12, and the Guido & Carrara family. What you actually see varies by day, season and tide.

2 · Silvery Fish — the open-water shimmer

Jacks, barracuda, mullet and needlefish — fast, mirror-bright fish that cruise the sandy edges and open water just off the reef.

Bigeye Trevally

Caranx sexfasciatus

Silver jacks with big eyes that gather in slow, wheeling schools. Watching a tight ball of them turn as one is a highlight of any swim.

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Pacific Crevalle Jack

Caranx caninus

A muscular, deep-bodied silver jack that hunts baitfish in fast-moving schools. When they charge a bait ball, the water boils.

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Green Jack

Caranx caballus

Slender and blue-green along the back, these jacks stream over the reef in quick, shifting schools that catch the light.

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Pacific Lookdown

Selene brevoortii

Thin as a coin and bright as a mirror, with a steep, sloping forehead that gives it a permanently downcast "look." Dazzling in sunlight.

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Mexican Barracuda

Sphyraena ensis

A slender silver ambush hunter that hangs almost motionless in the water. Toothy and dramatic to see, but calm and no cause for alarm.

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Striped Mullet

Mugil cephalus

Hardy silver fish that ripple across the shallows in big, easygoing schools and often leap clear of the surface for no obvious reason.

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Yellowfin Mojarra

Gerres cinereus

A bright silver fish with yellow-tinged fins that sifts the sandy bottom for small morsels, puffing little clouds of sand as it feeds.

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Pacific Needlefish

Tylosurus fodiator

Long, pencil-thin fish with a needle beak that hover right at the surface. Easy to miss until the light catches their silver line.

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Representative photos of each Eastern Pacific species, via Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons licenses (CC BY / CC BY-SA): Rickard Zerpe, László Ilyés, Diego Delso, George Berninger, Kees Groenendijk and Phonon.b. What you actually see varies by day, season and tide.

3 · Sloping-Head Fish — snappers & grunts

The tapered, big-lipped fish that hover near rocks and ledges in loose schools — from golden snappers to the grunting porkfish.

Yellow Snapper

Lutjanus argentiventris

Silver up front, bright golden toward the tail. One of the most common reef fish on the Pacific coast, usually hovering near rocks and ledges.

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Blue-and-Gold Snapper

Lutjanus viridis

Electric blue lines on a golden body, schooling tightly near rocky outcrops. One of the most recognizable fish on the reef.

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Pacific Dog Snapper

Lutjanus novemfasciatus

The reef's heavyweight — a big, broad-shouldered snapper with large dog-like teeth. Often seen alone near deeper rocks and caves.

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Barred Pargo

Hoplopagrus guentherii

A stocky, handsome snapper found only in the Eastern Pacific. Younger ones show pale bars; adults hold close to a favorite ledge.

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Panamic Porkfish

Anisotremus taeniatus

Two bold black bars on a silver face, a body striped in yellow. One of the most photogenic grunts on the reef.

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Burrito Grunt

Anisotremus interruptus

A solid, silvery grunt with a brassy sheen that works the base of the rocks. Quiet-looking, but it really does grunt.

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Graybar Grunt

Haemulon sexfasciatum

One of the biggest grunts here, hanging in large shimmering schools near the reef. The whole group shifts and reforms as you swim through.

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Latin Grunt

Haemulon steindachneri

Silvery with fine wavy lines and a dark smudge near the tail. Often mixed into larger grunt schools drifting over the rocks.

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Representative photos of each Eastern Pacific species, via Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons licenses (CC BY / CC BY-SA): Diego Delso, Julien Renoult, Dan Schofield, Alberto Alcalá and rmcminds. What you actually see varies by day, season and tide.

4 · Damselfish & Small Ovals — the feisty little locals

Small, bold reef fish that farm algae and guard their turf — plus the schooling chromis that hover in midwater clouds.

Panamic Sergeant Major

Abudefduf troschelii

The bold black-and-yellow striped fish you'll likely meet first — common, curious, and all over the rocks. Often the first fish to greet snorkelers.

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Giant Damselfish

Microspathodon dorsalis

The biggest damselfish here — dark and chunky, and fearless for its size. Young ones glow with electric-blue spots.

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Cortez Damselfish

Stegastes rectifraenum

A small, busy reef guardian. Adults are dusky brown; juveniles are deep blue with glowing neon lines.

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Beaubrummel

Stegastes flavilatus

A sharp two-tone damselfish — smoky gray above, washed yellow below. One of the more colorful of the small reef damsels.

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Acapulco Damselfish

Stegastes acapulcoensis

A dusky brown little defender that rarely leaves its scrap of reef. Plain-looking, but catch the light and you'll see blue flecks.

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Scissortail Chromis

Azurina atrilobata

Small silvery damsels with a deeply forked tail that hover in shimmering midwater clouds, picking plankton from the current.

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Representative photos of each Eastern Pacific species, via Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons licenses (CC BY / CC BY-SA): Diego Delso and Ryan McMinds. What you actually see varies by day, season and tide.

5 · Heavy-Bodied / Big-Lipped Fish — groupers & sea bass

The thick-bodied ambush hunters of the reef — groupers that wait in the rocks, plus the schooling creolefish and the rock-perching giant hawkfish.

Flag Cabrilla

Epinephelus labriformis

A small, color-shifting grouper that waits motionless in the rocks to ambush its next meal. Can vanish against the reef in moments.

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Panama Graysby

Cephalopholis panamensis

A small, shy grouper that tucks into caves and overhangs, rarely straying far from cover. Often seen peeking from a crevice.

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Leopard Grouper

Mycteroperca rosacea

A spotted reef hunter — and a lucky few turn vivid gold. The rare golden phase is a dramatic sight against the blue.

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Broomtail Grouper

Mycteroperca xenarcha

A reef heavyweight with an unmistakable frayed, broom-like tail. Big ones hold near large rocks and deeper ledges.

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Pacific Creolefish

Paranthias colonus

A sea bass that schools in the open, drifting in rosy midwater clouds to pick plankton from the current.

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Giant Hawkfish

Cirrhitus rivulatus

The largest hawkfish — a stocky, marbled fish that perches on the rocks on its stiff fins, watching for a meal.

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Representative photos of each Eastern Pacific species, via Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons licenses (CC BY-SA / Public domain): Diego Delso and Stickpen. What you actually see varies by day, season and tide.

6 · Pectoral-Fin Swimmers — wrasses & parrotfish

The reef's fin-rowers — colorful wrasses that comb the rocks and sand, and the beak-mouthed parrotfish that graze the reef and help make white sand.

Mexican Hogfish

Bodianus diplotaenia

A large wrasse that changes color and shape through life — striped as a youngster, big and bump-headed as an old male.

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Cortez Rainbow Wrasse

Thalassoma lucasanum

A small, dazzling wrasse striped in red, yellow and blue-green that zips over the reef in busy groups.

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Sunset Wrasse

Thalassoma grammaticum

A green wrasse washed with pink and purple lines — a real looker when the light catches it over the reef.

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Chameleon Wrasse

Halichoeres dispilus

A slim, color-shifting wrasse that combs the sand by day and buries itself in the bottom to sleep at night.

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Spinster Wrasse

Halichoeres nicholsi

A big, boldly barred wrasse that patrols the reef edge and dives into the sand to hide at nightfall.

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Wounded Wrasse

Halichoeres chierchiae

A small, quick wrasse named for the red blotches on the males that look like wounds — colorful, not hurt.

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Parrotfish

Scaridae

The beak-mouthed reef grazers that scrape algae off the rock and help make white sand. We built a full guide to them.

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Bluechin Parrotfish

Scarus ghobban

A big, beak-mouthed grazer, blue-green with a bluish chin, that you can sometimes hear crunching at the reef.

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Bicolor Parrotfish

Scarus rubroviolaceus

A large two-tone grazer — darker in front, brighter behind — that scrapes the reef and helps build the beach sand.

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Representative photos of each Eastern Pacific species, via Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons licenses (CC BY / CC BY-SA): Diego Delso, mark6mauno, Alberto Alcalá and the Guido & Carrara family. What you actually see varies by day, season and tide.

More groups on the way

We're photographing and adding the rest of the Central Pacific's reef fish, group by group.