As a marine life photographer I often find myself searching to identify and understand the life cycle of marine flora and fauna.  As most of you know, this can be a frustratingly time-consuming endeavor.  I’m always thrilled to discover a new resource.  I just found a fantastic new one!

Founded in 2000 by a group of enthusiastic reef keepers, Reeflex.net was originally conceived to support marine aquarists once they’ve decided to set up a saltwater aquarium.

Realizing, however, that the oceans’ animals and aquatic plants are living beings that deserve species-appropriate care, Reeflex.net deliberately moved away from the original strategy of supporting aquarium keeping and have sought collaboration with divers.  Now the intention of reeflex.net is to provide a serious and reliable source of reference for all its users.

Sample page – Entry of the Day

Over the years and due to the brilliant underwater photographers and marine experts it has developed into a comprehensive database for the identification of marine animals and plants for all interested people.  As an interactive online encyclopedia reeflex.net lives on the shared experience of its users, whether they are divers, saltwater aquarists or other people interested in marine biology.

The Marine Encyclopedia is visited by up to 11,000 visitors daily; last year recording 4 million visitors with 81.9 million page views.  As of 2026, there are over 17,000 entries on marine life in the Marine Encyclopedia. Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN) and their CITES classification is incorporated into the species profiles, reminding the researcher that many of today’s species are threatened to varying degrees.

What a resource!

Marine Encyclopedia’s Frogfishes page. Note: This opening page provides General Info about the subject and a scroll-down list of each genera with images and info of each species.

Their “What is this?” page, where divers can upload photos of species to be identified, is super popular.  Two of the three site administrators work diligently (and quickly) to identify species.  Additionally, they support FishBase, SeaLifeBase, and the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) by adding data and photos of marine life.

As an interactive online encyclopedia reeflex.net lives on the shared experience of its users, whether they are divers, saltwater aquarists or other people interested in marine biology.  Reeflex.net welcomes you to contribute your images and comments.

Note: Reeflex.net is a German language site.  BUT Marine Encyclopedia-data base is in English and the site administrators are constantly working to make Reeflex.net more English-user friendly.