Water animals in this game, and what they are
There are plenty more water animals out there. These are the 166 the game runs on — each with a line on what it actually is, for the ones nobody has heard of.
Tap any name to read more about it. Playing right now? This is the answer sheet — come back after.
Anything that lives in water — ocean, river, lake or pond. Water birds count too.
The game runs on 166 names across 26 letters, 84 of which are common enough that most groups will reach them without help. The other 82 are the ones somebody at the table will know and everyone else will argue about.
The generous letters are S, C, P and B — each has four or more answers almost anyone would get. The ones that catch people out are I, Q, V and X, where the game has answers but none of them are obvious.
This is not a definitive list and was never meant to be. Nobody could write down all the water animals there are. Anything real your group agrees on counts, whether it is here or not.
AWater animals that start with A
- Alligator
- Long snout, lurks in swamps
- Angelfish
- Flat, striped, drifts round a reef
- Anemone
- Waves its arms on a rock. Nemo hid in one
- Anchovy
- Tiny salty fish, the one people argue about on pizza
- Axolotl
- Pink salamander that keeps its feathery gills and never grows up
- Abalone
- Sea snail with a flat shell that is rainbow inside
- Arapaima
- Giant Amazon river fish that comes up to breathe air
- Amberjack
- Big fast silver sea fish that anglers chase
- Albacore
- A tuna, the pale kind that comes in a tin
BWater animals that start with B
- Blue whale
- The biggest animal that has ever lived
- Beaver
- Builds dams, flat tail
- Bass
- Chunky fish people love to catch in lakes and rivers
- Beluga
- All white, smiles, lives in the Arctic
- Blowfish
- Puffs up into a spiky ball
- Bullfrog
- The big one, with a deep croak you hear across a pond
- Barracuda
- Long silver fish with a jaw full of needles
- Barnacle
- Little hard cone glued to rocks and the bottom of boats
- Betta
- Fighting fish with long flowing fins, often kept alone
- Box jellyfish
- Clear, square-topped, and one of the most dangerous in the sea
CWater animals that start with C
- Crab
- Walks sideways, two claws
- Clam
- Two shells that shut tight
- Clownfish
- Orange and white, lives in the anemone
- Coral
- Looks like a rock, is actually alive
- Cod
- The one in fish and chips
- Catfish
- Whiskers, lives on the river bottom
- Crocodile
- Teeth, a long snout, floats like a log
- Carp
- Big-scaled pond fish with whiskers at the mouth
- Crayfish
- Like a tiny lobster, lives in streams
- Conch
- Huge spiral shell you can blow like a horn
- Cuttlefish
- Changes colour in a blink, has W-shaped eyes
- Chinook salmon
- The biggest Pacific salmon, also called king
DWater animals that start with D
- Dolphin
- Clicks and whistles, leaps from the sea
- Duck
- Webbed feet, says quack
- Dogfish
- A small shark, about the length of your arm
- Dugong
- Sea cow that grazes on seagrass, cousin of the manatee
- Damselfish
- Small, bold, bright reef fish that defends its patch
- Devil ray
- Like a manta, with little horns at the front of its head
EWater animals that start with E
- Eel
- Long and slippery, more snake than fish
- Electric eel
- It can shock you
- Elephant seal
- Enormous seal, and the male has a droopy nose
- Emperor penguin
- The tallest penguin, huddles through Antarctic winter
- Eagle ray
- Spotted ray that flaps its wings and seems to fly
- Egret
- Slim white wading bird with a long neck and black legs
FWater animals that start with F
GWater animals that start with G
- Goldfish
- Orange, in a bowl
- Guppy
- Tiny, bright, in a tank
- Goose
- Honks, flies in a V
- Great white shark
- The one from Jaws
- Giant squid
- Enormous, deep down, rarely seen
- Grouper
- Big heavy reef fish that swallows prey whole
- Grey whale
- Grey and barnacled, makes one of the longest journeys of any animal
- Goby
- Tiny fish that perches on the bottom, often shares a burrow
HWater animals that start with H
- Hippopotamus
- Huge, lives in rivers
- Hermit crab
- Borrows an empty shell and moves house
- Humpback whale
- Sings, and leaps right out of the water
- Hammerhead shark
- Its head is a wide flat bar
- Heron
- Stands dead still in shallow water, then stabs
- Halibut
- Huge flat fish lying on the seabed, both eyes on top
- Herring
- Small silver fish that moves in enormous shoals
- Horseshoe crab
- Helmet-shaped, with a spike tail, older than dinosaurs
- Hippo
- Barrel-shaped, stays in rivers, surprisingly dangerous
IWater animals that start with I
- Isopod
- Flat segmented crawler, like a woodlouse, some live deep in the sea
- Icefish
- Antarctic fish with see-through blood and no red in it
- Ibis
- Wading bird with a long curved beak for probing mud
- Irukandji jellyfish
- No bigger than your fingernail and horribly venomous
JWater animals that start with J
KWater animals that start with K
- Killer whale
- Black and white, hunts in a pod
- King crab
- Huge, spiny, from cold northern seas
- Krill
- Tiny shrimp whales eat
- Koi
- Big orange and white fish in a garden pond
- Kingfisher
- Blue bird that dives for fish
- Kingfish
- Big powerful sea fish that fights hard on a line
LWater animals that start with L
- Lobster
- Two big claws, turns red when cooked
- Lionfish
- Striped, with venomous spines like a fan
- Leech
- Soft worm that clamps on and drinks blood
- Leatherback turtle
- Biggest turtle, with a rubbery ridged back instead of a hard shell
- Leopard seal
- Spotted Antarctic seal with a wide reptile grin, hunts penguins
- Limpet
- Little cone clamped so hard to a rock you cannot prise it off
MWater animals that start with M
- Manta ray
- Glides like a huge underwater kite
- Manatee
- Big, slow and gentle. They call it a sea cow
- Mussel
- Black shell, clings to rocks in clusters
- Minnow
- A very small river fish
- Moray eel
- Hides in a hole in the reef with its mouth gaping
- Marlin
- Huge ocean fish with a spear on its nose
- Mackerel
- Silver fish with wavy dark stripes down its back
NWater animals that start with N
- Narwhal
- The whale with a spiral tusk
- Newt
- Small salamander in ponds
- Nurse shark
- Slow brown shark that lies on the bottom all day
- Nautilus
- Tentacles poking out of a beautiful coiled shell
- Needlefish
- Long and thin as a pencil, with a beak full of teeth
OWater animals that start with O
PWater animals that start with P
- Pufferfish
- Swells up with spikes when frightened
- Penguin
- Black and white, swims
- Piranha
- Small, toothy, in the Amazon
- Prawn
- Like a shrimp, a bit bigger
- Platypus
- Duck bill, beaver tail, and it lays eggs
- Parrotfish
- Bright as a parrot, nibbles the reef
- Pelican
- Scoops up fish in the huge stretchy pouch under its beak
- Porpoise
- Like a small blunt-nosed dolphin, shy near shore
- Pike
- Long green ambush fish of lakes, all teeth
- Plankton
- Drifting specks too small to see, and the sea runs on them
- Puffin
- Small sea bird with a striped triangular beak
QWater animals that start with Q
- Queen angelfish
- Brilliant blue and yellow reef fish with a crown-like spot
- Quahog
- Hard round clam from the Atlantic sand
RWater animals that start with R
- Ray
- Flat and diamond-shaped, with a whip tail
- Rainbow trout
- Freshwater fish with a pink stripe along its side
- Reef shark
- Sleek shark that patrols the edge of the coral
- Rockfish
- Spiny fish that lurks among rocks and can live for decades
- Remora
- Hitches a ride by sticking to a shark with a pad on its head
SWater animals that start with S
- Shark
- Rows of teeth, fin above water
- Starfish
- Five arms on the sea floor
- Seahorse
- Tiny, upright, and the father carries the babies
- Squid
- Ten arms and a jet of ink
- Seal
- Flippers, whiskers, barks on the rocks
- Stingray
- Flat, with a stinging tail
- Sea urchin
- A spiny ball on the sea bed
- Sea turtle
- A shell, and flippers instead of feet
- Swordfish
- Its nose is a long flat blade
- Shrimp
- Small, pink, curled up
- Sea lion
- Barks, claps, and walks on its flippers
- Salmon
- Swims upriver to lay its eggs
- Swan
- White, long neck, glides on the lake
- Salamander
- Damp-skinned and lizard-shaped, but related to frogs
- Snail
- Slow, with its house on its back
- Sardine
- Little silver fish, the one packed in tins
- Sponge
- It really is an animal, even though it never moves
- Sturgeon
- Armoured ancient river fish whose eggs are caviar
- Sea otter
- Floats on its back, cracks shells on a stone on its chest
TWater animals that start with T
- Turtle
- Carries its shell
- Tuna
- Big, fast, and it comes in a tin
- Tadpole
- All tail, and it will grow legs
- Trout
- Speckled, in cold rivers and lakes
- Tiger shark
- Striped when young, eats almost anything
- Toad
- Like a frog, but bumpy and drier
- Triggerfish
- Locks a spine upright so nothing can pull it from its hole
UWater animals that start with U
- Urchin
- Spiny ball on the sea floor
- Unicornfish
- Reef fish with a horn sticking out of its forehead
- Uakari
- Amazon monkey with a red bald face
VWater animals that start with V
- Vampire squid
- Deep sea, cloaked in webbing, glows instead of inking
- Viperfish
- Deep sea hunter with fangs too long for its own mouth
WWater animals that start with W
- Whale
- Biggest animal ever
- Walrus
- Two long tusks, Arctic ice
- Whale shark
- The biggest fish, spotted, and harmless
- Water snake
- Harmless swimmer that hunts frogs and fish
- Wrasse
- Bright reef fish, and some clean the teeth of bigger ones
XWater animals that start with X
- X-ray fish
- See-through body, so its backbone shows
YWater animals that start with Y
- Yellow perch
- Golden lake fish with dark bars down its sides
- Yellowfin tuna
- Fast ocean tuna with long bright yellow fins
- Yellowtail
- Sleek sea fish with a yellow tail, often eaten raw
- Yabby
- Australian freshwater crayfish
ZWater animals that start with Z
- Zebra shark
- Spotted bottom shark, striped only when young
- Zooplankton
- The drifting specks that are animals rather than plants
- Zebra mussel
- Small striped shellfish that clogs up pipes where it does not belong