30 Animals That Live in Water (Explained With Pictures)

In the world, a lot of animals live in water, and there are also animals that live on both land and water like;

• Crocodile
• Angelfish
• Octopus
• Cuttlefish
• Starfish
• Manatees
• Oyster
• Crab
• River otter
• Prawn
• Sea lion
• Walrus
• Whale
• Sea slug
• Turtle
• Crayfish
• Seahorse
• Dugong
• Eels
• Tuna
• Narwhal
• Squid
• Snail
• Piranha
• Seal
• Sea otters
• Shark
• Dolphin
• Coral
• Clownfish

These all are animals that live in water. We will discuss a few of them;

1- Clownfish

Scientific name: Amphiprioninae

Class: Fish

Scope: the Red Sea and Pacific Ocean

Intro to Clownfish

These fish are found in the Red Sea and the Pacific Ocean in hot water. There are around 30 species of clownfish. Some live in the Indian Ocean and others in the western Pacific and the Red Sea. Clownfish are classified into 7 groups, and Mccullochi is the rarest specie among them. Almost all clownfish are born male. 

Appearance of Clownfish

They have a bright orange color and have three white bars, one on the head, the second on the body, and the third on the tail. Their fins are covered with black tips. The average size of clownfish is around 4.3 inches, and the longest clownfish is about 17 cm long and weigh around 200 grams. 

Clownfish Diet

Clownfish eat different invertebrates and algae. They eat krill, smelt, brine, frozen worms, mysis, fish food, and squid pieces in detention. In seawater, their diet is fish eggs, small shrimps, copepods, and larvae.

2- Coral

Scientific name: Anthozoa

Class: Mammal

Scope: Worldwide

Intro to Coral

Corals are tiny marine animals that live in water and are found all over the world’s oceans. They live in both saltwater and freshwater. Corals are found from Aleutian Island to the coast of Alaska and to the warm tropical water of the Caribbean Sea. The mound we call ‘coral’ consists of thousands of small animals called polyps.

Appearance of Coral

Corals have natural pigment tissues that produce a color that varies from white, orange, red, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Corals are usually small animals with a size of less than half an inch in diameter. The largest corals have a size of 5 inches, which are found in mushroom corals. 

Coral Diet

Corals are carnivores that eat marine worms, barnacles, crabs, snails, sea stars, and other fishes. They digest nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon dioxide, which are waste materials in corals.

3- Crocodile

Scientific name: Crocodylidae

Class: Reptile

Scope: Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Americas

Intro to Crocodile

Crocodiles are giant animals that live in water, lakes, and in rivers. They are found in Asia, Australia, Africa, Africa, and America’s tropical regions. There are 24 species of crocodile that are until recognized, and they usually live in saltwater, lakes, rivers, and wetlands regions, and because they are cold-blooded and they don’t create their heat, so they live in hot climates. 

Appearance of Crocodile

Crocodiles are very powerful and dangerous animals. They have strong jaws, funnel-shaped teeth, and small legs with webbed clawed toes. They have giant tails, and their skin is so thick and scaly. Adult crocodiles have light green to tan colors. The saltwater crocodile is the largest in the world. Male crocodile size is 6-6.3 meters, with a body weight of 1,000-1,300 kg. Females are smaller than males, and their size is about 3 meters. 

Crocodile Diet

Crocodiles are extremely carnivores, so their diet includes insects, frogs, lizards, small mammals, turtles, birds, crabs, crustaceans, and even giant snakes. 

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4- Dolphin

Scientific name: Delphinus

Class: Mammal

Scope: Worldwide

Intro to Dolphin

Dolphins are marine animals that live in water or oceans across coastlines and are mostly found in shallow seas. There are around 42 dolphin species of dolphins in the world. Some species like the South Asian River, Amazon River, and boto these dolphins species live in freshwater rivers and streams. All these species have different habitats. Some dolphin groups stick in one area for a lifetime, while others migrate from one area to another. Dolphins have a lifespan of 20-45 years. 

Appearance of Dolphin

Dolphins’ colors are black, grey, and white. They have smooth, rubbery skin, two fins, and a triangular one on the backside. They have conical teeth and streamlined bodies. Normally, bottlenose dolphins are 2 to 3.9 meters in length and have an average weight of 150 to 200 kg. Large bottlenose dolphins in the Pacific Ocean can grow up to 12-13 ft.  

Dolphin Diet

Dolphins are strong predators and carnivores. Their diet includes fish, squid, shrimps, crustaceans, jellyfish, carp, crabs, cod, anchovies, and other invertebrates. Even large dolphin species also feed on large aquatic mammals like sharks and as well as seals. Bottlenose dolphins mostly eat eels, hake, and mullet fish. 

5- Sea Otter

Scientific name: Enyhydra Lutris

Class: Mammal

Scope: western North Pacific Ocean and coastal areas of eastern

Intro to Sea Otter

Sea otters are mainly found in the eastern and western North Pacific oceans’ coastal areas and islands. There are almost 13 species of sea otters that live around the globe. River otters inhabit freshwater, but they also use saltwater across the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. But they can inhabit any environment, like ponds, lakes, marshes, and cold or hot areas. So they can inhabit anywhere.

Appearance of Sea Otter

Sea otters are black or dark brown. They have thick fur, small eyes, blunt head, white throat and chest, and covered ears. Sea otters have recanted claws on their front feet and have a moveable pouch of skin below every foreleg. This helps them clench food they collect from the base of the sea. Male otters weigh up to 32 kg, and females weigh around 23 kg. The Nothern sea otters are larger than others, the female weighs around 32 kg, and the male otter weighs around 45 kg. The size of the sea otter is around 1.2-1.5 meters, and females are from 100-140 cm.

Sea Otter Diet

Sea otters are carnivores as well as omnivores. They feed on both plants and animals. Their diet includes snails, clams, mussels, crabs, scallops, octopuses, worms, squid, sea urchins, and fishes. They mostly feed on hard-shelled invertebrates like crabs, mussels, and clams. Northern otters are large, so they eat large fishes and possibly sharks.

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6- Seahorse

Scientific name: Hippocampus

Class: Fish

Scope: Worldwide

Intro to Seahorse

Seahorses are considered small marine animals that live in water and in oceans. These fish are found all over the world in shallows, tropical and temperate saltwater. They mostly live in sheltered areas like beds, seagrass, coral reefs, and mangroves. There are 47 different species of seahorses around the globe. The four species live in Pacific water from North America to South America. 

Appearance of Seahorse

They have a horse-like head, monkey-like tail, and kangaroo-like pouch. They have eyes like chameleons that can move in all directions and have excellent eyesight. Seahorses can blend their body color with their surroundings. Normally, their color is yellow, orange, pink, and grey. They usually weigh around 7 ounces to 1 pound and size about 0.8 to 14 inches. The big-belly seahorse is the largest in the world and can grow more than one foot. 

Seahorse Diet

Seahorses are carnivores and ambush predators, and they make traps for their prey and attack them to kill aquatic animals like fishes, larvae, shrimps, copepods, and other small edibles. Although they don’t have teeth, they devour a whole of their food. 

7- Seal

Scientific name: Pinnipedia

Class: Mammal

Scope: Arctic and Antarctic coast and cold waters

Intro to Seal

Seals mainly live on the coast and cold water and are found in North Pacific and the Atlantic Ocean. They are all semi-aquatic marine mammals. Almost 33 species of seals are around the globe. They also come to the beach for sunlight or for resting. Mostly they spend their time in the water. Seals have fin-shaped feet that allow them to swim better in water. 

Appearance of Seal

Seals have webbed foreflippers, reshaped flippers limbs, five blunt claws, and hind flippers that are covered with hairs. Seals also have fat that contains blood vessels, which keep them warm. But only pure seals have this blubber insulation. Their body color is brown or light brown to grey. Male seals are around 7-8 feet long, and females are 6.5 feet long. Male weighs about 660-770 pounds, and females weigh about 330-450 pounds. 

Seal Diet

Seals are carnivores, so they feed on fishes, eel, squid, crustaceans, salmons, rockfish, herring, hake, flounder, octopus, and lobster. One of the specie of seal leopard can eat penguins and other small seals, and the grey seal can eat up to 10 pounds of food in a day. 

8- Piranha

Scientific name: Pygocentrus nattereri

Class: Fish

Scope: central and southern river systems of South America

Intro to Piranha

Piranha is freshwater fish found in South America in tropical streams, rivers, and murky water. They are also found in ponds, lakes, rivers, and borrow pits in the US. There are around 40-60 species of piranhas around the world. The Red-bellied is one of the most common specie of piranha. They are usually found Amazon basin.

Appearance of Piranha

Piranha colors vary from silvery orange to completely black. They have saw-edge bellies, blunt heads, strong, sharp jaws, and triangular-like sharp teeth. Their normal length is about 15 inches, and they weigh up to 1.5 kg. The Red-bellies piranha can weigh up to 3.2 kg. But the San Francisco piranha’s standard weight is around 2.2 to 3.6 kg, with a maximum length of 19.6 inches. It is known as the largest extant piranha specie. 

Piranha Diet

Piranha’s diet includes insects, aquatic invertebrates, algae, crustaceans, and aquatic plants. They eat seeds and meat as well. However, piranhas are the prey of large animals like crocodiles, jaguars, large fishes, and other large mammals. Piranhas can survive up to 3 to 4 months without eating. 

9- Shark

Scientific name: Selachimorpha

Class: Fish

Scope: Worldwide

Intro to Shark

Sharks are huge animals that live in water in almost every water habitat, like the deep sea, coral reefs, under arctic ice, and the open sea, but mostly live in the ocean habitat. They are mostly found in Atlantic coastal water across the Pacific coast. Around the globe, there are more than 500 species of sharks. Some of them migrate to get more sources of food or for breeding. The lifespan of sharks is 20-30 years. But a shark is known as the Greenland shark, the longest-lived vertebrate, its a lifespan of around 272 years. 

Appearance of Shark

Shark body color is grey, white, brown, or tan. They have sharp scales on their body, sharp triangular teeth, pointed fins, pointed snouts, and overturned tails. They constantly swim because they don’t have a swim bladder. If they don’t constantly swim, they can sink in the water. Sharks generally weigh 680-1,800 kg, but some can weigh more than 2,270 kg. The great white shark’s size is three times more than an adult person’s and can reach up to 20 feet. Normally the female length is around 15-16 feet, and the male is around 11-13 feet.

Shark Diet

Sharks are carnivores that mostly eat shrimp, fish, squid, sea turtles, lobster, and crabs. But the large shark can eat large marine mammals like dolphins, seals, sea lions, small sharks, and large fish species like mackerel, tuna, and small sharks. Whenever they come to the water’s surface catch seabirds and eat them. Some sharks also eat dead animals.

10- Angelfish

Scientific name: Pterophyllum

Class: Fish

Scope: tropical South America

Intro to Angelfish

Angelfishes are mostly found in the freshwater of tropical South America. There are almost 90 species of angelfish in the world. These fish are most common in home aquariums because they look so beautiful.  

Appearance of Angelfish

These fishes have flat, thin, rounded bodies with curved dorsal and anal fins. They have dark eyes and small mouths. Mostly angelfish have a silver-colored body. They have unique body shape, so their unique body helps them hide and go through plants easily. Red eye in angelfish means the fish is fully matured and healthy. These fishes lay transparent eggs, and they are so small that you can guess them from the tip of a straight pin.

Angelfish Diet

Angelfish are omnivores. Their diet includes worms, larvae, insects, and small crustaceans. They also eat plant materials. Vegetables like blanched peas, cucumber, zucchini, and a few amount of shredded lettuce. To stay healthy, they must eat plant food, so make sure the diet plan is according to plant food. 

11- Dugong

Scientific name: Dugong dugon

Class: Mammal

Scope: Worldwide

Intro to Dugong

Dugongs are marine animals that live in water and are found in warm coastal water from East Africa to Australia, counting the Indian Ocean, Red Ocean, and Pacific Ocean. They are also known as sea cows. There are 4 species of dugongs in the world. Dodging can live up to 70 years. They breathe oxygen from the surface of the water from their nostrils, they can hold their breath for up to 11 minutes, and they can dive up to 33 meters in search of food.

Appearance to Dugong

The dugong is grey-brown, and they are bulbous animals, have flattened fluked tails, unique head shapes, and no dorsal fins. When they are born, their color is pale cram, but time after time, they grow, and their color changes into dark grey. They are approximately 13 feet long and weigh about 270 kg. 

Dugong Diet

Dugong is herbivores, so they feed on seagrass. Other diet includes worms, jellyfish, shellfish, and sea squirts. Because they have poor eyesight, they are easy prey to big sharks. They feed on seagrass all day. 

12- Eel

Scientific name: Anguilliformes

Class: Fish

Scope: Worldwide

Intro to Eel

Eels are found in both saltwater and freshwater. Most of them also live in shallow ocean water and tunnel into the sand, mud, and rocks, and some live in deep oceans. They are found in the ocean’s top three zones: epipelagic, mesopelagic, and bathypelagic. There are almost 800 species of eels in the world. 

Appearance of Eel

They have elongated bodies like snakes, soft-rayed fins, and elongated dorsal and anal fins. Eels have small but strong jaws with many teeth. Their color ranges from drab grey or black to colorful and faded yellow on the sides. Eels’ size ranges from 5 cm to 4 meters, and adults weigh about 30 grams to 25 kg. Many of them lack pectoral fins.

Eel Diet

Eels are carnivores, so their diet includes insects, larvae, fish, water snails, mollusks, and crustaceans. They also eat those creatures that are smaller than them. Eels also consume other creatures, like shrimps, frogs, krill, clams, mussels, octopuses, jellyfish, crickets, and mosquitoes.

13- Narwhal

Scientific name: Monodon monoceros

Class: Mammal

Scope: Arctic

Intro to Narwhal

Narwhal is a whale found in the Arctic water of Canada, Norway, Greenland, and Russia. They are very beautiful and unique creatures. There are only two species of a narwhal, and around 75,000 population of narwhal remains due to IUCN. They can live up to 50 years, and their color changes with their age growth. 

Appearance of Narwhal

No whales look like whales. They have long tusks that stick up with their head. The tusk is a long tooth growing up to 10 feet long. Narwhales have black and white spotted skin pattern and are white below. They weigh up to 4,200 pounds and can grow 17 feet long.

Narwhal Diet

Narwhales are carnivores and prey on shrimps, cod, squids, halibut, and other marine animals. Narwhale is the largest marine mammal, so their diet is too much. On average, they can eat between 20 to 25 pounds per day.  

14- Whale

Scientific name: Cetaceans

Class: Mammal

Scope: North Atlantic Ocean

Intro to Whale

Whales are found in North Atlantic Ocean, from the subtropic to the Greenland Sea. They live in shallow and deep water and are air-breathing mammals. There are around 90 different species of whale around the globe. Whales are divided into two main groups, toothed and baleen. The lifespan of a whale normally ranges from 20 to 100 years. 

Appearance to Whale

Whales have streamlined body shapes, reformed forelimbs into flippers, large tail fins, and smooth flat heads. Whale color varies from light to dark grey, blue, and black. Their average size is small as 8.5 feet and large as up to 100 feet, and they weigh around 300 pounds to 160 tons.

Whale Diet

Whales are carnivores, so they feed on krill, small plankton, fishes, zooplankton, and algae. Because their mouth is so large, they slowly swim and open their mouth to take food and water in huge amount. Whales favorite food is krill and also copepod crustaceans.

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