With over 20,000 different fish species living in the world’s oceans, saltwater bony fish are the most varied of all marine animals living in the sea. They can range in size from a 2-inch goby to the enormous ocean sun fish (or Mola mola), they can be brilliantly colorful to plain grey, can live solitary lives or school by the thousands, and can live in the shallowest of tropical waters to the coldest, deepest depths of the sea. There is no animal group on earth that can compare to the diversity of bony marine fish.

Saltwater fish are what make every dive different and exciting. Whether scuba diving amongst the warm coral reefs of the Caribbean or the cool Pacific kelp forests, you are sure to see a large variety of saltwater fish swimming and darting about. Check out our list of the most popular saltwater fish species like groupers, eels, angelfish, butterflyfish, clownfish, parrotfish, frogfish, and triggerfish, just to name a few, to learn more and to explore the best places in the world where you can dive with each of these exciting marine fish species.