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.
Dogtooth Tuna
A powerful reef-associated tuna of the Indo-Pacific, named for its large, dog-like teeth, often encountered patrolling steep drop-offs and current-swept reef edges.
reef
Discus
A round, flattened Amazonian cichlid prized for its vivid patterns and colors, considered one of the most striking freshwater aquarium fish and a demanding species to keep well.
freshwater
Diamond Goby
A slender, sand-sifting goby with rows of orange spots, prized for cleaning aquarium sand beds. Found on shallow lagoon flats throughout the Indo-Pacific.
reef
Emerald Rainbowfish
A deep-bodied rainbowfish endemic to Lake Wanam in Papua New Guinea, with mature males displaying a brilliant iridescent emerald-green sheen.
freshwater
Cuckoo Wrasse
A vividly patterned wrasse of the Northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean, with males displaying bold blue and orange stripes and females a softer pink patterned with black-edged white spots.
reef
Cutthroat Trout
A native western North American trout named for the distinctive red-orange slash marks under its jaw, found in an array of subspecies across cold streams and mountain lakes.
freshwater
Deep-sea Hatchetfish
A small, silvery, laterally flattened deep-sea fish shaped like a hatchet blade, using rows of downward-pointing light organs to mask its silhouette from predators lurking below.
deepsea
Doubletooth Surgeonfish
A sawtail surgeonfish of the genus Prionurus, marked by rows of forward-angled bony 'teeth' on the tail base instead of a single blade-like spine; found on rocky reefs of the eastern tropical Atlantic.
reef
Dwarf Pufferfish
The Dwarf Pufferfish is one of the world's smallest puffers, a freshwater species from southern India prized for its tiny size and expressive, alert behavior.
freshwater
Emperor Cichlid
The largest cichlid species in the world, the emperor cichlid grows to nearly a meter long in the deep waters of Lake Tanganyika and is notable for spawning only once before dying shortly after.
freshwater
Dusky Shark
A large, robust requiem shark found along continental coastlines worldwide, notable for its slow growth and long-distance migrations.
saltwater
Dog Salmon Herring
Despite the name, this is the chum salmon, nicknamed 'dog salmon' for its prominent canine-like spawning teeth — a true Pacific salmon, not a herring.
saltwater
Diamond Killifish
A tiny, unusually deep-bodied killifish from Gulf Coast salt marshes, named for its compressed, diamond-shaped profile. It tolerates wide swings in salinity within tidal creeks and marsh pools.
brackish
Denison Barb
A striking torpedo-shaped barb endemic to fast hill streams of India's Western Ghats, known for its bold red-black-yellow stripe and endangered status.
freshwater
Cunner
A small, cold-hardy wrasse with highly variable coloring, found on rocky reefs and kelp beds along the western Atlantic and known for becoming dormant in winter.
saltwater
Dragon Moray
One of the most ornately marked moray eels, easily recognized by its long tubular nostrils resembling horns and a striking mottled orange, white, and black pattern that has made it a favorite subject for underwater photographers.
reef
Cuckoo Catfish
A spotted African catfish from Lake Tanganyika famous for a brood-parasitic strategy in which it sneaks its own eggs into the mouths of incubating cichlids.
freshwater
Electric Yellow Cichlid
A vividly yellow mbuna cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi's rocky shorelines, popular in aquariums for its bright, almost uniform coloration and relatively peaceful temperament.
freshwater
Devil Scorpionfish
A master of camouflage, the devil scorpionfish blends into reef rubble until threatened, when it flashes brightly colored inner fins as a startle display.
reef
Cusk
The cusk is a solitary, eel-like member of the cod family found on deep rocky bottoms of the North Atlantic, recognized by its single long dorsal fin and thick lips.
saltwater
Copperband Butterflyfish
The Copperband Butterflyfish has a silvery-white body banded in copper-orange and a long, slender snout used to probe crevices, along with a black eyespot near the tail that helps confuse predators.
reef
Deep-sea Lizardfish
A hardy abyssal ambush predator that rests motionless on the deep seafloor, using a large tooth-lined mouth to seize whatever prey passes close by.
deepsea
Coral Grouper
The coral grouper is a vivid orange-red reef fish covered in small electric-blue spots, commonly seen darting among coral heads across the Indo-Pacific.
reef
Eastern Rainbowfish
A widespread eastern Australian subspecies of the splendid rainbowfish complex, showing blue-green to golden flanks and yellow-orange fins along coastal Queensland rivers.
freshwater
Crevalle Jack
A powerfully built, silvery jack with a steep forehead and a black spot on its gill cover, common along coastal and estuarine waters of the Atlantic.
pelagic
Devil Ray
A large, winged filter-feeding ray that cruises the open ocean in graceful undulating flight, often seen leaping clear of the water.
pelagic
Crappie
A deep-bodied, silvery panfish found in North American lakes and slow rivers, marked by irregular dark blotches or vertical bars depending on species. The genus Pomoxis includes the Black Crappie and White Crappie.
freshwater
Demasoni Cichlid
One of the smallest mbuna cichlids, the demasoni is instantly recognizable by its bold blue-and-black barring and is known for surprisingly intense territorial aggression despite its diminutive size.
freshwater
Cownose Ray
A migratory, schooling ray with a distinctive indented snout, famous for traveling in dense groups of hundreds along coastal waters.
pelagic
Dwarf Gourami
A small, colorful labyrinth fish from South Asia, with males displaying vivid diagonal red and blue stripes, popular in the freshwater aquarium trade.
freshwater
Crocodile Needlefish
One of the largest needlefish, with a massive, tooth-filled snout and a slender silvery body; a powerful surface predator of tropical and subtropical seas worldwide.
pelagic
Dog Snapper
A robust, coppery-red Western Atlantic snapper named for its prominent canine teeth, identified by a pale triangular patch beneath the eye.
reef
Copper Rockfish
A coppery-brown rockfish with a pale pink-white band along the back half of its body, commonly found near rocky structure and eelgrass beds close to shore.
saltwater
Dojo Loach
An elongated, whiskered East Asian loach, sold in the aquarium and pond trade under the Japanese name 'dojo,' known for burrowing in soft mud and tolerating cold water.
freshwater
Corydoras Catfish
A small, armored South American catfish genus known for its bottom-dwelling, social schooling habits and distinctive bony body plates instead of scales.
freshwater
Emperor Killifish
Emperor Killifish is an alternate name for the Blue Gularis, one of the largest and most dramatically finned West African killifish, with males sporting an elongated lyre-shaped tail.
freshwater
Electric Blue Hap
One of the most vividly colored Lake Malawi haplochromine cichlids, males display an intense electric-blue body that makes this predatory species a standout among the lake's rock-dwelling cichlids.
freshwater
Egg-laying Killifish
A general term for the many oviparous killifish species that scatter fertilized eggs rather than bearing live young, exemplified by the widespread blue panchax of South and Southeast Asian wetlands.
freshwater
Dragon Wrasse
A reef wrasse whose juveniles mimic drifting algae with wild fin extensions, while adults become stout, green-bodied rock-flippers that hunt buried invertebrates.
reef
Ember Parrotfish
The vivid orange-red juvenile color phase of the Redlip Parrotfish, prized in the aquarium trade for its fiery hue before it transforms into a much larger blue-green adult.
reef
Diamond Tetra
A deep-bodied Venezuelan characin famed for its sparkling iridescent scales, endemic to the ecologically stressed Lake Valencia basin.
freshwater
Dusky Grouper
The dusky grouper is a large, dark brownish-grey grouper native to rocky reefs of the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic, once heavily depleted by spearfishing and now a conservation priority in parts of its range.
reefDragonfish
Dragonfish are elongated, predatory deep-sea fish with needle-sharp teeth and a long luminous chin barbel used to lure prey in the permanently dark mesopelagic zone.
deepsea
Electric Eel
A long, air-breathing South American knifefish, not a true eel, famous for generating powerful electric discharges from specialized organs used to stun prey, navigate, and defend itself.
freshwater
Deep-sea Smelt
A small, silvery-bodied deep-sea fish that drifts through the dark midwater zone feeding on tiny plankton, forming a key link in deep ocean food webs.
deepsea
Coral Hind
A vivid orange-red Indo-Pacific grouper scattered with pale iridescent-blue spots, commonly seen resting near coral heads and reef ledges.
reef
Dover Sole
The Dover sole is a slippery-skinned, right-eyed flatfish of the North Pacific, unusual among soles for living on deep continental slope bottoms far offshore.
deepsea
Black Jack
The Black Jack is a large, uniformly dark trevally that forms big schools around offshore tropical reefs and current-swept drop-offs across the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic Oceans.
reef