Squirrelfish (Holocentrus spp. and related genera) are subtropical and tropical saltwater fish without bushy tails. All are noted for not eating nuts or nesting in trees.

Squirrelfish may be found in places where the mammal known as "squirrel", in other parts of the world, is unknown; or at best, rumoured.

The origin of the name may fairly be described then as a puzzle.

It is, in fact, an ingenious attempt to promote the otherwise unremarkable squirrelfish as the world's most talked about non-tree-climbing, non-nut-eating, non-mammal.