Fish... or Not a Fish?

Try to guess whether each of these creatures is a fish ... or not a fish.

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Last updated: October 12, 2021

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First submitted	April 15, 2019
Times taken	31,941
Average score	72.7%
Rating	4.33

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1. Catfish

Fish ✓

Not ✓

2. Lionfish

Fish ✓

Not ✓

3. Cuttlefish

Fish ✓

Not ✓

Cuttlefish are mollusks. They are close relatives of squid and octupuses.

4. Jellyfish

Fish ✓

Not ✓

5. Lungfish

Fish ✓

Not ✓

6. Crayfish

Fish ✓

Not ✓

Crayfish, also known as crawdads, are freshwater crustaceans.

7. Shellfish

Fish ✓

Not ✓

Shellfish is a generic term that refers to certain marine animals such as shrimp, mussels, and lobsters

8. Stonefish

Fish ✓

Not ✓

9. Silverfish

Fish ✓

Not ✓

Silverfish are small wingless insects that like to eat wallpaper.

10. Starfish

Fish ✓

Not ✓

11. Seahorse

Fish ✓

Not ✓

12. Sea urchin

Fish ✓

Not ✓

13. Sea snake

Fish ✓

Not ✓

14. Eel

Fish ✓

Not ✓

15. Tadpole

Fish ✓

Not ✓

A tadpole is the larval stage of a frog or toad.

16. Octopus

Fish ✓

Not ✓

17. Whale shark

Fish ✓

Not ✓

Whale sharks are the largest species of fish.

18. Porpoise

Fish ✓

Not ✓

19. Guppy

Fish ✓

Not ✓

20. Manta ray

Fish ✓

Not ✓

21. Manatee

Fish ✓

Not ✓

22. Lamprey

Fish ✓

Not ✓

Level 84

Oct 7, 2021

Thanks for playing! Also try Bird... or Fish?

+12

Level 88

Dec 31, 2019

Fish / Not A Fish

The name of this has a great ring to it for a game.

Level 74

Jan 3, 2020

This isn't fish related, but in New Orleans, I was taught to play 'Costume / No Costume' by some locals. It essentially consists of people-watching while guessing whether passers-by are in costume or not. I remember being impressed by folks who seem to hit the sweet spot in-between. But then, I was wearing a tutu and eating a sandwich.

Level 84

Dec 31, 2019

Also try Insect...or Not an Insect? and Reptile...or Amphibian?

Level 51

Jan 1, 2020

Lamprey belongs to the phylum cyclostomata and not Pisces therefore lamprey are eel like creature and does not belong to fish

Level 65

Jan 1, 2020

So why didnt you make a comment about eel being categorised as fish here??

Level 85

Jan 1, 2020

Eels are bony fish, unlike lampreys.

Level 84

Jan 1, 2020

They are jawless fish.

Level 85

Jan 1, 2020

I mean, if we're going to be technical, all bony fish are more closely related to terrestrial vertebrates than they are to cartilaginous and jawless fish.

Level 83

Jan 1, 2020

Cyclostomata is not a phylum, is a subclass. Lampreys are chordates/vertebrates. It's long been called a fish, regardless of its taxonomy.

Level 85

Jan 4, 2020

Lampreys are an ambiguous case, I don't think it's a good idea to include them in such a quiz.

Level 65

Jan 1, 2020

Somehow I got fooled by the seahorse... And also we were taught sharks and ray were a different subclass but it was so drilled in like you have fish and the cartilaginous fish (chondrichthyes). Obviously in more elementary school level words, "you have fish and sharks and rays". That division was taught so early and strongly that I dont really see them as fish, which they obviously are, because they are definitrly not mammals or birds. But I cant help but to think of them separately (the seperation obviously exists, but as two subclasses chondrichthyes and osteichthyes)

Level 65

Jan 1, 2020

Btw the word fish looks soooo weird now

Level 85

Jan 4, 2020

Well, they are considered distinct classes, not even subclasses. In fact, there is the class of cartilaginous fish, the class of ray-finned fish and the... superclass? of the rest of vertebrates, which includes only eight species of lobe-finned fish.

Level 69

Apr 18, 2020

That's what they always taught us at school, too! In my language, we even have a more reasonable name for them (fish - ryba, chondrichthyes - paryba) that implies that they're ancient, fish-like creatures.

Level 69

Apr 18, 2020

I looked it up on Wikipedia and it seems that "fish" is a rather general term that is not part of the phylogenetic classification. It's only typological and as such includes sharks and rays etc. In Czech, however, the term for this is a little different (even though we often use the word for fish in this sense, as well, but it's done just for simplification and is considered incorrect).

What we mean by "fish" (ryby) in Czech is the paraphyletic superclass "osteichthyes" (bony fish). That's why we don't consider sharks as fish.

So the term fish isn't part of the scientific classification but it's a popular, demotic word which has a different meaning in each language. I find it quite interesting how the meaning of this word, which I thought was quite unambiguous, is so different in different cultures.

Level 52

Jan 1, 2020

I got all of them except Seahorse.

Level 74

Jan 3, 2020

Me too. I remember thinking, "Surely bearing live young disqualifies you from fishhood!"

("Thinking" is probably an exaggeration.)

Level 68

Jan 11, 2020

This is a cute comment!

Level 75

Jan 1, 2020

I had no idea eels, rays or seahorses were considered fish

Level 85

Jan 4, 2020

Look at the picture of an eel, it clearly has fins and a fish head, though the are long (sea snakes, on the other hand, are, well, snakes). Rays and Sharks are cartilaginous fish, which are considered a distinct class to bony fish. Anyway, both classes are what are commonly called "fish".

Level 35

Jan 2, 2020

I had no idea seahorse was a fish you learn something new everyday with these quizzes I love it

Level 83

Jan 2, 2020

I am the fish master

Level 86

Jan 3, 2020

Yeah, what if "Bahamut" had been one of the entries? Fish or not fish?

Level 83

Jan 11, 2020

heh. Depends on the mythology if it's even a sea creature or not. But then, if it is, those originally writing about it had no concept of what a fish was apart from whales, dolphins, et cetera.

Level 68

Jan 3, 2020

This quiz is silly. Everyone knows that there's no such thing as a fish.

Level 70

Jan 11, 2020

This is scientifically accurate. The category of a fish is arbitrary.

Level 65

Mar 23, 2023

I agree.

Level 85

Jan 4, 2020

Funny. I got most of them right. Only missed Lamprey (because it's ambiguous) and Silverfish which I should have translated because we call it the same way in French ("poisson d'argent")... by the way, its description is wrong, it is wingless, not winged ;) (and rather a protoinsect than a true insect but it doesn't really matter).

Level 68

Jan 11, 2020

Fun quiz. Got all but seahorse, manta ray and eel.

Level 46

Jan 11, 2020

Got all of them except Manta Ray. Some were pretty obvious and some I didn't even know what they were in English so I had to think for a minut. XD

Level 60

Jan 11, 2020

Almost got silverfish wrong; that's what we call whitebait. Realised quickly that this one probably referred to the insect.

Level 69

Jan 11, 2020

after watching bbc docs this was a first try 100%

Level 82

Jan 12, 2020

To fish or not to fish

Level 58

Jan 14, 2020

"Fish" is a polyphyletic group and thus this quiz is inherently flawed

Level 51

Jan 20, 2020

I guess my knowledge on sea creatures is a little... FISHY! Ah? Ah? Hey, where's everybody going?

Level 65

Feb 4, 2020

Error in the explanation, silverfish do not have wings (in fact nowhere in their evolutionary line is there a species that has wings. They diverged before wings evolved. Unlike other insects without wings that do come from a lineage after wings have evolved, but have lost them again along the way.)

Level 65

Feb 4, 2020

Correction checkbox

( not sure if I checked the box or not, it's 2am and gone back and forward to all kinds of pages if I am not carefull it will be morning and I will have read up all about insects, evolution, flight dynamics and whatever I will come across, which links in with the previous subject.. Kind of what some people have with youtube, I have with research, before you know it you will have spend hours, going from one subject to the next.)

Level 76

May 3, 2020

I got full in this, I guessed 18 of the as XD

Level 19

Jun 19, 2020

I did much better than I thought I would! 14/22. :P

Level 75

Jun 21, 2020

I got 21/22, guess I really like fish :D

Level 57

Sep 8, 2020

Only 35% knows that a seahorse is a fish? That's funny to me.

Level 66

Sep 11, 2020

I got silverfish wrong as this is whitebait but I realised my mistake, however, I'd like to point out that silverfish are wingless, not winged insects. ;-)

Level 84

Sep 11, 2020

Good catch! Thank you!

Level 59

Oct 11, 2021

You never resubmitted it

Level 84

Oct 11, 2021

OK it has definitely been changed and resubmitted now, and changes are pending!

Level 83

Oct 13, 2020

Out of curiosity, what's your basis for defining fish in this quiz? Are you going by general categorization in everyday language or do you count certain biological groups, and if yes which ones?

Level 56

Nov 24, 2020

Guessed most of these and only got one wrong

Level 70

Mar 31, 2021

same, got manta ray wrong

Level 78

Apr 10, 2021

I just missed silverfish and manta ray!!

Level 59

Oct 11, 2021

In the explanation, you say silverfish have wings. This is false, at least for the silverfish I’m thinking of. Please change it.

Level 84

Oct 11, 2021

Good catch! Thank you!

Level 45

Oct 19, 2021

Wow - I never knew seahorses were fish!

Level 66

Feb 5, 2022

Genuine question - what did people think seahorses were if not fish?

Level 43

Nov 29, 2022

Easy to just call them sea life

Level 55

Mar 9, 2023

Completely forgot what a starfish was for some reason

Level 67

Aug 22, 2023

Holy @$#%@% I got all of them I right I was expecting to get at least a couple wrong, only reason I got them all is because I went to the aquarium recently and learned that seahorses, rays, eels, etc. are indeed fish. And some of them I feel like I got lucky on

Level 67

Aug 22, 2023

Silverfish have gotta be some of my least favorite bugs, along with centipedes and crickets

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