Knowledge of the capacity for species to acclimate and adapt to rapid climate change is critical for understanding likely species responses, as well as for effective management and conservation of ecosystems in the future. Much of the research to date uses the present-day performance and sensitivity of populations or species to infer the capacity for persistence in predicted future environments. This research generally suggests negative impacts to most organisms and very little capacity for species to cope with expected future change. However, for marine species projected environmental change will occur over years and generations allowing for plastic and adaptive processes to take place. Recent research is showing that some species may be able to improve and maintain performance when altered conditions are experienced early in life or when previous generations have experienced conditions. I present a series of studies on the ability and limitations of tropical reef fish to acclimate to projected ocean warming within and across generations.