The practice of aquatic animal medicine is usually limited to those involved in aquatic animal parks, aquaria, part time private practice, contract veterinarians and a few in military service. Aquatic medicine can vary in emphasis to include cetaceans, pinnipeds, sirenians, otters, fish, sharks, turtles, invertebrates as well as many other species not commonly studied. Veterinarians involved with these species may originate from postdoctoral training programs such as internships and residencies, private practice and research backgrounds.

The challenges facing the aquatic animal clinician are often not as well supported by the Veterinary College systems available for most domestic animals. In recent years more programs have been developed that deal with some aspects of aquatic species though there are few programs that cover the wide range of species maintained in oceanaria.

The aquatic animal clinician must become skilled in all areas of diagnostic techniques including clinical pathology, radiography, ultrasound, laproscopy, and endoscopy. Treatments are often adopted from a mixture of domestic animal information as well as the human field. The greatest contributions to the field of aquatic medicine have occurred because of the dedication of hardworking clinicians and researchers who do not settle for doing average medicine.