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.
Mono
A shimmering, disc-shaped fish with a strongly flattened body and tall, angular fins, native to Indo-Pacific estuaries. Adults school in brackish coastal waters and shift gradually toward full seawater as they mature.
brackish
Lionfish
A striking, striped reef predator native to the Indo-Pacific, now a widespread and ecologically disruptive invasive species across the Western Atlantic and Caribbean, easily recognized by its fan-like fins and venomous spines.
reef
Lemon Shark
A stocky, yellow-brown coastal shark named for its sandy coloration, recognized by two nearly equal-sized dorsal fins, common in shallow mangrove and reef habitats of the western Atlantic and eastern Pacific.
cartilaginous
Silver Mono
The plain, uniformly silver adult form of the mono, a coin-shaped estuarine fish that loses its faint juvenile eye-bar as it matures. Common in schools around Indo-Pacific mangroves, jetties, and harbors.
brackish
Palette Surgeonfish
The vivid blue-and-black Blue Tang, famous for its palette-shaped markings and bright yellow tail; an Indo-Pacific coral reef species that feeds mainly on drifting plankton rather than algae.
reef
Ocellaris Clownfish
A small orange-and-white clownfish that lives in a mutualistic partnership with sea anemones on Indo-Pacific reefs. It is one of the most familiar reef fish species due to its bright coloring and anemone-dwelling behavior.
reef
Japanese Anchovy
A small, abundant schooling fish found throughout the coastal waters of Japan, Korea, and China, the Japanese Anchovy is one of the most heavily fished species in the western Pacific and a vital link in regional marine food webs.
pelagic
Green Scat
A green-toned color variant of the Spotted Scat, with the same deep, disc-shaped body but a more uniform olive-green wash and lighter spotting. Found in the same brackish estuaries and harbors across the Indo-Pacific.
brackish
Harlequin Tuskfish
A vividly colored wrasse with a turquoise-blue body crossed by orange bars and prominent protruding tusk-like teeth used to crush hard-shelled prey. It inhabits coral-rich reef slopes across the western Pacific.
reef
Cherry Salmon
The cherry salmon is a Pacific salmon native to East Asia that exists in two forms: a smaller freshwater-resident form called yamame and a larger, silvery sea-run form, both named for the pink cherry-blossom hue of spawning fish.
freshwater
Spotted Scat
A deep-bodied, disc-shaped fish covered in dark spots over an olive-to-silver background, common in Indo-Pacific estuaries and harbors. Its bold pattern and spiny dorsal fin make it easy to pick out among schooling brackish fish.
brackishBigfin Squid Fish
Despite the common name, this is not a true fish but a rarely filmed deep-sea cephalopod, famous for extraordinarily long elbowed arms trailing beneath a small gelatinous body.
deepsea
Cownose Ray
A migratory, schooling ray with a distinctive indented snout, famous for traveling in dense groups of hundreds along coastal waters.
pelagic
Sixgill Shark
A massive, ancient-lineage deep-sea shark with six gill slits instead of the usual five, found from shallow fjords to depths beyond 2,000 m.
deepsea
Atlantic Salmon
An iconic anadromous fish of the North Atlantic, born in cold rivers, maturing at sea, and returning to natal streams to spawn.
freshwater
Grayling
A slender freshwater salmonid relative famed for its tall, sail-like dorsal fin, native to cold, clear rivers of Europe.
freshwater
Atlantic Halibut
The Atlantic halibut is the largest flatfish species, a right-eyed flounder with a diamond-shaped body found on cold seabeds of the North Atlantic.
saltwater
American Plaice
A right-eyed flounder of the cold North Atlantic, identifiable by its rough scales, curved lateral line, and reddish-brown upper body.
saltwater
Arctic Char
A cold-adapted char of circumpolar northern waters, showing extremely variable coloration and body form across isolated lake and anadromous populations.
freshwater
Atlantic Wolffish
A large, eel-like cold-water fish with powerful crushing jaws, sheltering solitarily in rocky dens across the North Atlantic.
saltwaterWinter Flounder
The winter flounder is a small, right-eyed flatfish of the northwest Atlantic, named for its habit of moving into shallow coastal bays during the colder months.
saltwater
Sea Hagfish
The sea hagfish is a primitive, eel-shaped jawless fish that scavenges on the deep, cold seafloor of the North Atlantic and produces enormous amounts of defensive slime.
deepsea
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.
freshwater
Spotted Wolffish
A large, deep-water wolffish covered in bold dark spots, found in cold Arctic and North Atlantic waters on rocky and gravel seafloor.
deepsea