Fish Identifier

Fish Encyclopedia

Search and identify 1,000+ fish species — freshwater, saltwater, reef, and pelagic — with habitat, size, diet, behavior, and how to tell them apart.

all freshwater saltwater reef pelagic cartilaginous deepsea brackish

Yellow Perch

A golden-yellow freshwater fish marked by dark vertical bars and orange-tinged fins, native to lakes and slow-moving rivers across North America. It is one of the most abundant and widely recognized panfish species.

White Sturgeon

The white sturgeon is the largest freshwater fish in North America, an armored, long-snouted giant found in Pacific coast rivers from California to British Columbia.

Wolf Cichlid

One of the largest Central American cichlids, this powerful predator combines vivid turquoise and orange coloration with formidable jaws.

Zebra Danio

A small, torpedo-shaped freshwater fish famous for the bold horizontal blue and gold stripes running the length of its body, and widely used as a model species in scientific research.

Von Rio Tetra

A small, fiery-red tetra native to coastal rivers near Rio de Janeiro, notable for two dark shoulder spots and deep red hindquarters.

Walking Catfish

Walking Catfish

A hardy Southeast Asian catfish capable of breathing air and moving across land between bodies of water using its pectoral spines.

Zebra Mbuna

One of the most iconic Lake Malawi cichlids, the zebra mbuna is highly variable in color across populations but typically shows bold barring, and it forms the basis for one of the aquarium hobby's most popular mbuna groups.

Whiptail Catfish

Whiptail Catfish

Whiptail Catfish are slender, armored South American catfish named for their long, tapering tail, often seen grazing algae along riverbeds.

White Bass

A deep-bodied, silvery schooling bass with faint horizontal stripes, common in large freshwater lakes and rivers of the central United States, known for its spring spawning runs.

Wels Catfish

One of the largest freshwater fish in the world, the wels catfish is a scaleless, elongated predator native to European rivers and lakes, recognizable by its enormous flattened head and long barbels.

Weather Loach

An elongated, eel-shaped East Asian loach known for becoming unusually active before storms, a behavior tied to its sensitivity to changes in barometric pressure.

Upside-down Catfish

Upside-down Catfish

A small Central African catfish famous for habitually swimming belly-up, an unusual behavior reflected in its reversed body coloration.

Ceylon Killifish

An elongated, surface-dwelling killifish endemic to Sri Lanka, showing an orange-red body with fine dark speckling and iridescent scale flecking.

Miller Lake Lamprey

The Miller Lake lamprey is a tiny, non-parasitic jawless fish historically restricted to a single lake and its tributary streams in Oregon, one of the smallest lamprey species known.

Tiger Muskie

A hybrid of northern pike and muskellunge, this elongated apex predator sports bold dark tiger stripes and is prized as one of freshwater's most aggressive game fish.

Mexican Lamprey

The Mexican lamprey is a jawless fish endemic to freshwater rivers of the central Mexican highlands, one of the few lamprey species found so far south in North America.

Blood Parrot Cichlid

A rounded, vivid orange-red hybrid cichlid recognized by its permanently small, beak-like mouth and stubby, rounded fins.

Whitefish

Lake whitefish are silvery, streamlined members of the salmon family that inhabit cold, deep lakes across North America, feeding along the bottom for insect larvae and small invertebrates.

Turquoise Killifish

Turquoise Killifish

A vividly colored annual killifish from southeastern Africa's temporary pools, notable for having the shortest lifespan of any known vertebrate, typically just a few months in the wild.

Zebra Loach

A small, boldly striped South Indian loach with fine dark vertical bands, popular in aquariums for its compact size and peaceful, social behavior.

Tiger Shovelnose Catfish

Tiger Shovelnose Catfish

A large South American river catfish with a distinctive flattened, shovel-shaped snout and bold black stripes across a pale body.

Zebrafish

A small, striped South Asian minnow renowned worldwide as a key model organism for genetics and developmental biology research, alongside its popularity as an aquarium fish.

Tiger Trout

Tiger trout are a sterile hybrid between brown trout and brook trout, prized by anglers for their striking maze-like markings and aggressive feeding habits.

Warmouth

A stocky, big-mouthed sunfish with red eyes and dark cheek streaks, at home in weedy, sluggish waters and swamps of the eastern United States.

Zebra Pleco

A small, strikingly patterned armored catfish endemic to the Rio Xingu in Brazil, prized in the aquarium trade for its bold black-and-white stripes but critically endangered by dam construction.

West African Lungfish

West African Lungfish

An eel-shaped African lungfish able to survive months of drought by burrowing into mud and forming a protective cocoon while it aestivates.

White Crappie

A silvery, deep-bodied panfish with faint vertical bars along its sides, common in reservoirs and turbid rivers of the central United States and prized for its schooling habits and delicate mouth.

Western Brook Lamprey

Western Brook Lamprey

The western brook lamprey is a small, non-parasitic jawless fish that spends most of its life as a burrowing larva in Pacific Northwest streams before a brief, non-feeding adult stage.

Tropical Gar

A large-bodied gar native to Central American rivers and lakes, with a broad snout and faint dark spotting on its rear body and fins.

Twig Catfish

The Twig Catfish is an extraordinarily thin, elongated armored catfish that mimics a floating twig or plant stem to avoid predators.

Yoyo Loach

A patterned South Asian loach whose silvery body is marked with dark lines that form Y- and X-shaped patterns, giving rise to its common name.

Uaru

A large, deep-bodied Amazonian cichlid known for a dramatic color change with age, from a striped juvenile pattern to a mottled brown adult, and for a rare parenting behavior in which parents feed their fry a body-slime secretion.

Sterlet

The sterlet is the smallest widespread sturgeon species, a slender freshwater fish of Ponto-Caspian rivers known for its long, thin, upturned snout with fringed barbels.

Texas Cichlid

The only cichlid native to the United States, this pearly, turquoise-spotted fish thrives in the rivers of Texas and northeastern Mexico.

Walleye

A slender, golden-olive freshwater predator named for its large, glassy, light-reflective eyes that give it excellent low-light vision for hunting at dusk and in murky water.

White Cloud Mountain Minnow

White Cloud Mountain Minnow

A hardy, cold-tolerant minnow with a metallic green-gold stripe and red-tinted fins, native to cool mountain streams in southern China.

Threadfin Shad

A small, deep-bodied herring relative native to the Gulf Coast and Mississippi basin, the Threadfin Shad is widely stocked in freshwater reservoirs across the United States as an important forage fish.

Venustus Cichlid

Venustus Cichlid

Nicknamed the giraffe cichlid for its blotched, leopard-like pattern, this Lake Malawi predator is known for a striking hunting trick: lying motionless on its side to lure in unsuspecting prey.

Tiger Barb

A small, deep-bodied freshwater fish marked with four bold black vertical bars across a golden-orange body, often seen darting energetically in tight schools.

Western Mosquitofish

Western Mosquitofish

Native to the Mississippi River basin and Gulf Coast, the western mosquitofish is one of the most widely introduced fish on Earth, prized and criticized in equal measure for its mosquito-control abilities.

Tinfoil Barb

A large, fast-swimming barb with brilliant silver, mirror-like scales and orange-red fins, the tinfoil barb inhabits big Southeast Asian rivers and forms sizable shoals in open water.

Turquoise Rainbowfish

Turquoise Rainbowfish

An electric-blue rainbowfish endemic to Lake Kutubu in Papua New Guinea's highlands, prized for its uniform turquoise sheen.

Southern Platyfish

Southern Platyfish

The full common name for the widely kept platy, the southern platyfish is a small, hardy livebearer native to Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala, prized for its color variety and easy breeding.

Spotted Bass

A compact black bass species with rows of small dark spots below the lateral line, native to the Mississippi and Gulf drainages and often found alongside Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass.

Ukrainian Brook Lamprey

Ukrainian Brook Lamprey

The Ukrainian brook lamprey is a small, non-parasitic jawless fish that lives its entire life in freshwater streams of Eastern Europe, feeding only during a long larval stage.

Silver Tip Tetra

Silver Tip Tetra

A bronze-bodied Brazilian characin notable for lacking an adipose fin and for its bright white-tipped fins, active in fast-moving shoals.

Variable Platyfish

Variable Platyfish

A close relative of the common platy, the variable platyfish is native to northeastern Mexico and shows exceptional natural variation in color and pattern, giving rise to many popular aquarium strains.

Sockeye Salmon

A Pacific salmon renowned for its brilliant crimson spawning coloration and strong dependence on lake habitat during its freshwater juvenile stage.