Fish identification

Be a fish detective!

Christian Gloor

For many divers the thrill of spotting and identifying a new fish is one of the reasons they love to dive.

But identifying a new fish is never that easy, especially considering the sheer abundance of different species that make their home in Asia's incredible reefs.

So we've put together some tips to help you to improve your identification skills and get more out of your diving.

Love marine life?

Top identification tips

Get familiar with the common reef fish families (or just your favourites) and find out about their appearance and behaviour. Underwater Asia's Reefspotter pages are a great place to start. With a bit of knowledge it’s easy to correctly identify most fishes families and it is much easier to ID a fish if you know which family it is from.

Carry a slate underwater and make a quick drawing of the fish when you see it. Don’t worry about artistic perfection - just make a quick note of the shape, fins, markings and colouration of the fish.
Don’t just look at the fishes' appearance, note it’s behavoiour as well. What the fish is doing can be just as helpful as what it looks like when you are trying to identify it. Is it on the bottom or hovering above the reef? Is it on its own or in a group? How does it swim and which fins does it use?
The slate below gives you an idea of what to look out for to help you identify a fish more easily.

Try and look for your fish in a fish book as soon after the dive as possible. Memories fade fast, especially when confronted with a page of 10 very similar looking reef fish.
Don't place too much importance on common names. If you look a fish up in two different books, the chances are it will have different names, so if you want to compare between books - use the latin name instead.

Nick Hobgood

Reading up...

Platyax Tiera

If you are interested in fish, it is well worth investing in a good and comprehensive fish book. Everybody has different tastes and needs, and there is a wide variety of fish ID books availiable today.

Ideally, take a look at the book first hand before you buy and remember to consider the following factors:

Area Covered: Do you want a guide that just covers one particular area, such as the South China Sea or do you want a reference to cover any tropical dive trip from the Bahamas to Fiji?
Photos / Drawings: Photos tend to be much better for comparisions, many drawings are unable to represent the fish for an accurate ID.
Number of Species: The more species a book covers the more likely it is to have the particular fish you are looking for.
Information: Does the book provide information on size, behaviour and habitat as well as showing images of the fish?
Comprehensivity: Does the book cover other reef life or just fish? Do you want a guide that covers invertebrates and corals or just fish?
Weight: A big, heavy, hardback book is not usually ideal for taking with you on diving holidays.

UnderwaterAsia.info can help you pick out the perfect fish guide for you - just visit our Amazon bookshop to see our recommended guides.