Florida has 3 million acres of freshwater lakes and 12,000 miles of streams and rivers. From those waters over 250 different species of freshwater fishes have been collected. This includes several rather rare native fishes and 73 species of non-native fishes (fish that come from outside of the United States and would not have been found in Florida if it were not for man's intervention). 

The fish species that most people tend to think about are the larger fish that are used for recreation or food. Of those, the 33 most popular are part of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's (FWC) "Big Catch" program and most are described in detail in this section of our web site (click the group you want to learn about in the table above, or if you aren't certain of the group in which to find a fish you can pick it from the common names list).  There is also a poster (small pdf version available for download) that illustrates these fishes and is available for schools and fishing-related businesses that will publicly display it.  A separate brochure is available to identify some of Florida's common exotic fishes (pdf version).

Most of the information presented here was compiled by Mark Trainor and Bob Wattendorf. The Non-native fish page is mostly due to the work of Paul Shafland and the sucker page is the result of Gray Bass's efforts.  Most illustrations are by Duane Raver, Jr.,(see link for a CD of his artwork). Other illustrations are by Joseph Tomelleri. We have their approval to use their art on our site, if you want to use it yourself, however, you need to contact them directly.  A check list of Florida's freshwater fishes, organized by  scientific names,  is also on the site, along with their common names and a link photos of many of the fishes.  A fish photo-gallery is also available with underwater shots of many Florida fishes along with some interesting facts about some of the fish.  The University of Florida has a key to the freshwater fishes of Florida.

If you don't find what you want on our site, "Field and Stream Magazine's" web site has a great "fish finder" tool for 90 different freshwater and saltwater fishes, and an outstanding scientific resource on fish is Fish Base.