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.
Longnose Hawkfish
A red-and-white lattice-patterned hawkfish with an unmistakable elongated snout, perched motionlessly on gorgonian sea fans across the Indo-Pacific.
reef
Opaline Gourami
A marbled blue-and-silver color variety of the Three Spot Gourami, bred for its swirling opalescent pattern while retaining the same hardy biology and behavior as the wild form.
freshwaterPygmy Goby
One of the smallest vertebrates on Earth, this minute translucent goby perches in crevices on Indo-Pacific coral reefs and has an extraordinarily short lifespan.
reef
Molly Miller Blenny
A hardy little blenny that perches motionless on shallow rocks in tropical Atlantic tide pools, easily recognized by the fringed tentacles above its eyes.
saltwater
Cisco
Cisco, also known as lake herring, are slender silvery relatives of whitefish that form large open-water schools in the cold lakes of the northern United States and Canada, feeding mainly on plankton.
freshwater
Panda Corydoras
A small, pale armored catfish with bold black patches around the eyes and tail, resembling its namesake in miniature form.
freshwater
Catalina Goby
A tiny, vividly colored goby with electric blue bands over a red-orange body, found perched on rocky reefs and kelp holdfasts off the Pacific coast.
reef
Golden Wonder Killifish
A golden-orange color form of the striped panchax, this hardy topminnow patrols the water's surface hunting insects and small fish in South Asian wetlands.
freshwater
Steelhead
The anadromous, sea-run form of rainbow trout, prized by anglers for its powerful runs and acrobatic leaps after migrating between rivers and the Pacific Ocean.
freshwater
Yoyo Loach
A patterned South Asian loach whose silvery body is marked with dark lines that form Y- and X-shaped patterns, giving rise to its common name.
freshwater
Kokanee Salmon
Kokanee are a landlocked, non-migratory form of sockeye salmon that spend their entire life in freshwater lakes, turning bright red during their autumn spawning run into tributary streams.
freshwater
Green Swordtail
The naturally colored, wild-type form of the swordtail, the green swordtail displays an olive-green body with a red-brown stripe and the species' signature elongated tail extension in males.
freshwater
Striped Catfish
An eel-shaped Indo-Pacific reef catfish marked with pale longitudinal stripes, whose juveniles form dense, tightly packed schooling balls over sand and reef flats.
reef
Convict Blenny
An eel-like burrow-dweller whose black-and-white striped juveniles form dense swirling schools near the burrow mouth, while adults hide almost entirely underground.
reef
Blonde Naso Tang
A striking unicornfish with a gray body, black-and-yellow facial markings, and a bright yellow blaze along the back, best known in the aquarium trade as the Indian Ocean's 'blonde' color form.
reef
Chocolate Australe
A brown color form of the lyretail panchax, a small West-Central African killifish with fine carmine spotting and an elongated lyre-shaped tail. It lives in shaded forest streams near Gabon's coast.
freshwaterAnthias
A small, brightly colored basslet that forms large shimmering schools over reef drop-offs, feeding on drifting plankton.
reef
Knight Goby
A small, boldly patterned goby from Southeast Asian estuaries, pale gray-white with scattered black spots and blotches along its slender body. It perches on the bottom, propped on its fused pelvic fins, watching for small prey.
brackish
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
Queenfish
A small, slender drum common in California bays and nearshore waters, notable for forming large, tightly packed schools near the surface.
saltwater
Garden Eel
Garden Eels are slender, colony-forming eels that live permanently anchored in sandy burrows near reefs, swaying in the current as they catch drifting plankton.
reef
Banded Rainbowfish
A highly variable, boldly patterned rainbowfish from northeastern Australia, often showing multiple dark horizontal stripes and vivid regional color forms.
freshwaterHerring
One of the world's most abundant fish, the herring forms colossal schools in cold North Atlantic waters and underpins much of the region's marine food web.
pelagic
Tripod Fish
An abyssal fish that props itself above the seafloor on three elongated fin rays, forming a tripod, and waits motionless facing into the current to ambush tiny drifting prey.
deepsea