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.
Rummy-nose Tetra
A small schooling Amazonian tetra known for its bright red-orange snout and a bold black-and-white striped tail fin, prized in aquariums for its striking coloration and tight shoaling behavior.
freshwater
Northern Anchovy
A small, slender schooling fish with a pointed snout and large mouth, abundant along the Pacific coast of North America, where it forms a key part of the California Current forage base.
pelagic
Neon Rainbowfish
A small, brilliantly colored rainbowfish from New Guinea whose males flash iridescent blue-violet when displaying to rivals or mates.
freshwaterNorthern 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
A deep blue-green triggerfish with reddish teeth and a trailing crescent tail, often seen feeding on plankton above reef slopes.
reef
Northern Sea Robin
A bottom-dwelling western Atlantic fish with an armored head and huge wing-like pectoral fins, using leg-like fin rays to walk across the seafloor.
saltwater
New Zealand Hagfish
A jawless, eel-shaped scavenger that lives on muddy seafloor around New Zealand and southeastern Australia, known for producing copious defensive slime and feeding on carcasses and invertebrates on the seabed.
saltwater
Dwarf Neon Rainbowfish
A pint-sized New Guinea rainbowfish and one of the smallest Melanotaenia species, known in the aquarium trade for its saturated blue-violet males.
freshwater
Atlantic Needlefish
A long, slender silvery fish with a needle-like toothy beak, common in coastal and estuarine waters of the western Atlantic where it hunts small fish near the surface.
brackish
Keeltail Needlefish
A slender needlefish easily identified by the raised keel-like ridge on either side of its tail base, found cruising the surface of warm coastal waters worldwide.
saltwater
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
Northern Brook Lamprey
The northern brook lamprey is a small, non-parasitic freshwater lamprey of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River region, believed to have evolved from a parasitic ancestor but never feeding as an adult.
freshwater
Narrow-barred Spanish Mackerel
A large, fast-swimming mackerel of the Indo-Pacific marked by numerous narrow, wavy dark bars running down its silvery sides.
pelagic
Bighead Carp
A large, big-headed East Asian carp that filter-feeds on zooplankton, closely related to the silver carp and similarly established as an invasive species in North American rivers.
freshwater
Shortnose Sturgeon
The shortnose sturgeon is a small, endangered anadromous fish of eastern North America, distinguished from its larger Atlantic sturgeon relative by a shorter, blunter snout.
brackishPacific Bluefin Tuna
A massive, warm-bodied tuna capable of ocean-basin migrations across the entire North Pacific, recognized by its deep, torpedo-shaped body and short pectoral fins.
pelagic
Antarctic Cod
Antarctic cod is a bottom-dwelling notothenioid fish of the Southern Ocean, adapted to near-freezing water and recognized by its mottled brown, camouflaged body and broad head.
saltwater
Lined Seahorse
A medium-sized seahorse of the western Atlantic coast, variably colored from black to bright orange, often marked with fine pale lines on the neck and named for these subtle streaks.
saltwater
Botia
A genus of South and Southeast Asian freshwater loaches known for social behavior and varied patterning; the queen loach (Botia dario) is a representative species.
freshwater
Horseface Loach
The Horseface Loach is a slender, burrowing loach recognized by its elongated, downturned snout, native to sandy-bottomed rivers of Southeast Asia.
freshwater
Pacific Anchovy
A small, slender schooling fish abundant along the eastern Pacific coast from Canada to Baja California, the Pacific Anchovy is a key forage species known for its long snout and prominent silvery lateral stripe.
pelagic
Marbled Electric Ray
A bottom-dwelling electric ray capable of generating a strong electric shock, patterned with a mottled marbled coloration for camouflage on the seabed.
cartilaginous
Bull Shark
A stocky, grey shark famous for its extreme tolerance of fresh and brackish water, allowing it to travel far up rivers and live in freshwater lakes far from the ocean.
cartilaginous
Longnose Gar
A slender, torpedo-shaped freshwater fish with an extremely long, narrow, tooth-lined snout, easily recognized among North American fish by its needle-like jaws.
freshwater