After snorkeling, it’s great to have some snorkeling fish guides, to figure out what you saw. We own a variety of fish guides, for the Caribbean and the Pacific, that help us identify the wonderful marine life we find when on our snorkeling trips.
Note: Our suggestions come from hands-on experience. We hope you find them helpful. You can help us if you purchase from the links below. We may make a small commission, as an Amazon Associate or from other companies, at no extra cost to you.
Florida, Caribbean and Bahamas Fish Guides

Probably the best guides available are by Paul Humann and Ned DeLoach. Their Reef Set series has been the standard for fish identification for many years. If you are avid about the underwater world like us, do yourself a favor and buy their full Reef Set (on Amazon). This boxed set of hardback books includes, Reef Fish, Reef Creatures, and Reef Corals, all also on Amazon. This set is focused on Florida, Caribbean and Bahamas.

The same authors also put together a nice condensed book specifically for the marine life snorkelers will most likely encounter, Snorkeling Guide to Marine Life (on Amazon). We have used ours so much it is falling to pieces, and it is generally excellent.
Tropical Pacific Fish and Creature Guides

At the same time we bought the Reef Set above we also got their hardback book Reef Fish Identification – Tropical Pacific (on Amazon) – for help with Hawaii fishes and for when we explore more of the Pacific Islands.

We also own the hardback book Reef Creature Identification – Tropical Pacific (on Amazon). While it is great for identifying a number of creatures, we wish it had details about anemones, corals, sponges, tunicates and jellies too.
Hawaii Fish and Coral Guides

For Hawaii specifically, you can’t go wrong with John P. Hoover’s Hawaii’s Fishes: A Guide for Snorkelers and Divers (on Amazon).

Another good option for Hawaii is John E. Randall’s Shore Fishes of Hawaii (on Amazon).
Have fun learning about those beautiful fish and corals! And don’t miss the creature feature every month in our newsletter.
By the way, this is one of the better online snorkeling fish guides. And here is one a little more focused on Hawaii.
We now also have a page about identification apps you can use on your phone or tablet.