Mullets: Mugiliformes

Most mullets live in shallow near-shore saltwater habitats, such as bays, reef flats, tide pools, and harbor pilings and in habitats with a low salt content, such lagoons, mangrove forests, and estuaries (EHS-chew-air-eez), which are areas where rivers meet the sea. Mullets usually swim over sandy or muddy bottoms and sea grass meadows in relatively still waters. They commonly live in water depths of 66 feet (20 meters). Many species move between saltwater and the freshwater environments of rivers and flooded rice fields. Some species sometimes swim far upriver, and a few species spend their entire adult lives in rivers.