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.
Blue Catfish
North America's largest catfish species, silvery-blue to slate gray with a deeply forked tail, native to the Mississippi basin and now established as an invasive predator in several Atlantic drainages.
freshwater
Bagre Catfish
A silvery marine and estuarine catfish of the western Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, recognizable by its elongated sail-like dorsal fin filament and mouth-brooding parenting behavior.
saltwater
Mekong Giant Catfish
One of the largest freshwater fish on Earth, this critically endangered giant inhabits the deep main channel of the Mekong River and undertakes long spawning migrations.
freshwater
Upside-down Catfish
A small Central African catfish famous for habitually swimming belly-up, an unusual behavior reflected in its reversed body coloration.
freshwater
Tiger Shovelnose Catfish
A large South American river catfish with a distinctive flattened, shovel-shaped snout and bold black stripes across a pale body.
freshwater
Colombian Shark Catfish
A sleek, silver, shark-shaped catfish with a tall dorsal fin and long barbels, native to brackish river mouths along the Pacific coast of Central and South America.
brackish
African Sharptooth Catfish
A hardy, air-breathing catfish native to Africa and the Middle East, capable of surviving in low-oxygen water and even moving briefly over land, now widely farmed and invasive elsewhere.
freshwater
Kryptopterus
A small, almost entirely transparent Southeast Asian catfish whose internal skeleton and organs are visible through its glass-like body, popular in the aquarium trade.
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
Red Drum
The Red Drum is a coppery-bronze coastal fish of the western Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, best known for the dark eyespot near its tail.
brackish
Iridescent Shark
Despite its name, this is a large freshwater catfish, not a shark, recognized in juveniles by an iridescent sheen and dark stripes that fade with age.
freshwater
Corydoras
A small, armored bottom-dwelling catfish native to South American streams, Corydoras species are recognized by their rows of bony plates, paired barbels, and constant substrate-sifting behavior in search of food.
freshwater
Otocinclus
A tiny suckermouth catfish that spends most of its time grazing algae and biofilm from surfaces in slow-moving South American waters.
freshwater
Common Pleco
A large, heavily armored South American catfish with a suckermouth used to graze algae and biofilm from rocks and submerged wood.
freshwater
Pygmy Corydoras
The Pygmy Corydoras is one of the smallest armored catfish species, a tiny schooling fish native to slow-moving tributaries of the Amazon basin.
freshwater
Panda Corydoras
A small, pale armored catfish with bold black patches around the eyes and tail, resembling its namesake in miniature form.
freshwater
Bristlenose Pleco
A small South American armored catfish known for the branching, tentacle-like bristles that develop on the snouts of mature males.
freshwater
Candiru
A tiny, translucent Amazonian catfish that feeds by attaching to the gills of larger fish and consuming their blood, one of the few parasitic vertebrates known.
freshwater
Plecostomus
A heavily armored South American catfish with a downward-facing sucker mouth used to graze algae from rocks and submerged wood.
freshwater
Paddlefish
A large, ancient North American fish with a long paddle-shaped snout used to detect plankton, related to sturgeon rather than sharks despite its shark-like tail.
freshwater
Sterba's Corydoras
A popular armored catfish with a spotted body and bright orange pectoral fins, native to river tributaries along the Brazil-Bolivia border.
freshwater
Bronze Corydoras
A hardy, metallic-sheened armored catfish that forages along the substrate and is one of the most widely kept bottom-dwelling aquarium fish.
freshwater
Atlantic Wolffish
A large, eel-like cold-water fish with powerful crushing jaws, sheltering solitarily in rocky dens across the North Atlantic.
saltwater
American Paddlefish
The American paddlefish is a primitive filter-feeding fish famous for its long, paddle-shaped snout, native to the Mississippi River basin of North America.
freshwater