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.
Sweetlips
Sweetlips is the common name for boldly striped reef fish of the genus Plectorhinchus, exemplified by the Oriental sweetlips, known for thick fleshy lips and dramatic juvenile-to-adult color change.
reefShort-headed Lamprey
The short-headed lamprey is an anadromous, jawless fish of southeastern Australia and Tasmania, recognized by its notably short head and a marine parasitic phase before spawning in rivers.
brackish
Rudd
A deep-bodied European cyprinid known for brassy-gold flanks and vivid orange-red fins, the rudd frequents weedy lakes and slow rivers, feeding near the surface on insects and plants.
freshwater
Redfish
A coppery-bronze estuarine predator famous for the large black eyespot near its tail, the Redfish is a mainstay of shallow coastal flats along the Gulf and southeastern Atlantic coasts.
brackish
Pollock
A streamlined, greenish-bronze cod relative that schools around rocky reefs and wrecks in the northeastern Atlantic, told apart from cod by its protruding lower jaw and lack of a chin barbel.
saltwater
Parkinson's Rainbowfish
A large, robust rainbowfish from the eastern rivers of Papua New Guinea, with mature males displaying a striking golden-orange rear half contrasting with a bluish-silver front.
freshwater
Masu Salmon
Masu salmon is the southernmost and westernmost Pacific salmon species, native to Japan, Korea, and the Russian Far East, notable for males that can mature and spawn entirely within freshwater.
freshwater
Moonlight Gourami
A sleek, silvery-green Mekong basin gourami with an iridescent sheen and vivid orange-red pelvic fin filaments, notably lacking the dark body spots seen in many related species.
freshwater
Marbled Grouper
The marbled grouper is an uncommon western Atlantic reef fish with a distinctive dark, marbled or streaked pattern that gives way to a dark 'charcoal' belly, often seen near caves and drop-offs.
reefJack Mackerel
A slender, schooling temperate-water jack found off southern Australia and New Zealand, identifiable by its bony lateral scutes and vital role as forage for larger ocean predators.
pelagic
Least Killifish
One of the smallest vertebrates in North America, the least killifish is a tiny livebearer native to slow, vegetated wetlands of the southeastern United States despite its misleading name.
freshwater
Lionhead Cichlid
Also known as the buffalohead cichlid, this Congo River rapids specialist gets its "lionhead" nickname from the rounded, maned appearance of the fatty hump on a mature male's forehead.
freshwater
Hake
A slender, silvery predatory fish with a large toothy mouth and two widely separated dorsal fins, Hake patrol continental shelf waters of the northeastern Atlantic and Mediterranean.
saltwater
Huchen
The huchen, or Danube salmon, is Europe's largest freshwater salmonid, a powerful river predator native to the Danube basin that has become increasingly rare due to damming and habitat fragmentation.
freshwater
French Grunt
The French grunt is a small, abundant reef fish of the Caribbean and western Atlantic, marked by narrow yellow stripes over a silvery-white body and known for forming dense daytime schools.
reef
European Brook Lamprey
The European brook lamprey is a small, non-parasitic freshwater lamprey found across Europe, closely related to the river lamprey but spending its entire life cycle in streams and never feeding as an adult.
freshwater
Chocolate Gourami
A small, sensitive Southeast Asian blackwater specialist with a rich chocolate-brown body crossed by pale cream bands, notable as one of the few gouramis that broods its eggs in the mouth.
freshwater
Brown Trout
A golden-brown salmonid native to Europe and western Asia, marked by dark and reddish spots along its body, now widely introduced across the globe. It favors cool, clear rivers, streams, and lakes.
freshwater
Bluestripe Pipefish
The bluestripe pipefish is a tiny reef pipefish with a bright blue lateral stripe running along a tan or orange body, often seen hovering near crevices where it also cleans parasites from larger fish.
reef
Bocaccio
A large, streamlined rockfish with a prominent lower jaw and reddish-brown to olive coloring, once heavily depleted along the Pacific coast and now the focus of long-term rebuilding efforts.
saltwater
Blackwing Flyingfish
A stocky, wide-ranging flyingfish named for its large dusky-black pectoral wings, found gliding above open ocean surface waters across much of the world's warm and temperate seas.
pelagic
Alewife
A small, silvery anadromous herring native to the Atlantic coast of North America, recognizable by a single dark shoulder spot, that migrates from the ocean into freshwater rivers and lakes each spring to spawn.
brackish
Amazon Molly
An entirely female species that reproduces through a rare cloning-like process, the Amazon molly is a biological curiosity native to rivers along the Texas-Mexico border.
freshwater
Arctic Grayling
The Arctic grayling is a cold-water salmonid recognized by its tall, colorfully spotted dorsal fin, inhabiting clean rivers and lakes across northern North America and Siberia.
freshwater