Tropical fish include fish found in tropical environments around the world, including both freshwater and salt water species. Tropical fish are popular as aquarium fish, due to their often bright coloration. In freshwater fish, this coloration typically derives from iridescence, while salt water fish are generally pigmented.
Fishkeepers often use the term tropical fish to refer particularly to those requiring fresh water, with saltwater tropical fish referred to as marine fish. Tropical fish kept for home aquaria include the following:
- Wild-caught specimens.
- Single-species individuals born in captivity. The latter category includes lines selectively bred for special physical features, such as long fins, or particular colorations, such as albino.
- Hybrids of more than one species.
Recreational SCUBA divers are often enthusiasts of tropical fish as well. Some keep lists of fish species they have observed while diving, especially in tropical marine environments.
Read more about Tropical Fish: Coral Reef Fish, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words tropical and/or fish:
“Physical force has no value, where there is nothing else. Snow in snow-banks, fire in volcanoes and solfataras is cheap. The luxury of ice is in tropical countries, and midsummer days. The luxury of fire is, to have a little on our hearth; and of electricity, not the volleys of the charged cloud, but the manageable stream on the battery-wires. So of spirit, or energy; the rests or remains of it in the civil and moral man, are worth all the cannibals in the Pacific.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Remember the waterfront shack with the sign FRESH FISH SOLD HERE. Of course it’s fresh, we’re on the ocean. Of course it’s for sale, we’re not giving it away. Of course it’s here, otherwise the sign would be someplace else. The final sign: FISH.”
—Peggy Noonan (b. 1950)