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.

Pompano

Pompano

A deep-bodied, silvery jack with a forked tail, found along sandy coastal shores of the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean.

saltwater
Panda Corydoras

Panda Corydoras

A small, pale armored catfish with bold black patches around the eyes and tail, resembling its namesake in miniature form.

freshwater
Picasso Triggerfish

Picasso Triggerfish

A boldly patterned triggerfish with geometric blue, yellow, and black markings, common on shallow Indo-Pacific reef flats.

reef

Northern Kingfish

A slender surf-dwelling drum of the Atlantic coast, marked by bold dark diagonal bars and a distinctive elongated dorsal fin ray.

saltwater
Niger Triggerfish

Niger Triggerfish

A deep blue-green triggerfish with reddish teeth and a trailing crescent tail, often seen feeding on plankton above reef slopes.

reef
Moorish Idol

Moorish Idol

An unmistakable disc-shaped reef fish with bold black-white-yellow bands and a dramatically long trailing dorsal fin.

reef
Maroon Clownfish

Maroon Clownfish

The largest and most aggressive anemonefish, with a deep maroon body and bold white or gold bars, fiercely guarding its host anemone.

reef
Naso Tang

Naso Tang

A large surgeonfish with bright orange lips and a yellow tail-base marking, grazing algae along Indo-Pacific reef slopes.

reef
Mandarinfish

Mandarinfish

A tiny, vividly patterned reef fish covered in a maze-like network of blue, orange, and green, prized as one of the most colorful fish in the ocean.

reef
Glass Catfish

Glass Catfish

A small Southeast Asian catfish with an almost fully transparent body that reveals its skeleton and internal organs.

freshwater
Golden Trevally

Golden Trevally

A bright golden-yellow jack, often banded as a juvenile, found around coral reefs and lagoons throughout the Indo-Pacific.

reef
Florida Pompano

Florida Pompano

A deep-bodied, silvery fish with a forked tail and yellow-tinged fins, common in sandy surf zones along the western Atlantic coast.

saltwater
Fiji Blue Devil

Fiji Blue Devil

A striking blue-headed, yellow-bodied damselfish endemic to the coral reefs of Fiji and nearby South Pacific islands.

reef
Fingerprint Filefish

Fingerprint Filefish

The Fingerprint Filefish is a small reef filefish with a dark head, orange-brown body marked by fine irregular lines, and a bright orange tail.

reef
European Sea Bass

European Sea Bass

The European sea bass is a sleek, silvery predator common along European and North African coasts, prized by anglers as a hard-fighting sport fish.

saltwater
Dolly Varden

Dolly Varden

A char of Pacific coastal rivers named for a colorfully dressed Dickens character, closely related to and often confused with Arctic Char.

freshwater
California Corbina

California Corbina

A prized surf-zone drum of the California coast, recognized by its uniform silvery body, sloping snout, and single chin barbel.

saltwater
Bar Jack

Bar Jack

A sleek, blue-green jack with a dark stripe along its back and a black-and-white striped tail, common on Caribbean and western Atlantic reefs.

reef
Banded Knifefish

Banded Knifefish

An elongated, eel-like South American fish that generates weak electric fields to navigate and communicate in murky water.

freshwater
Yellowfin Surgeonfish

Yellowfin Surgeonfish

One of the largest surgeonfishes, reaching 70 cm, identified by a bright yellow pectoral-fin patch and blue-ringed eyes; found in lagoons and bays across the Indo-Pacific and eastern Pacific.

reef
Whitecheek Tang

Whitecheek Tang

A dark brown to black surgeonfish set apart by a bright white patch beneath the eye and a narrow orange tail band, commonly seen grazing rubble zones on Indo-Pacific reefs.

reef
Tuna

Tuna

A fast, powerfully built open-ocean fish capable of high-speed sustained swimming, ranging across warm and temperate seas worldwide in large migratory schools.

pelagic
Weedy Seadragon

Weedy Seadragon

A slender, reddish-purple relative of the seahorse decorated with small leaf-like fin projections and yellow stripes, found along the temperate reefs of southern Australia.

reef

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.

freshwater