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.
Vermilion Rockfish
A vivid orange-red rockfish of Pacific coast reefs, often called 'red snapper' informally by anglers despite being unrelated to true snappers.
saltwater
Hogfish
A large western-Atlantic wrasse with a pig-like snout and long front dorsal spines, able to rapidly change color.
reef
Bluebanded Sea Bream
An Indo-Pacific reef fish, actually a snapper, marked by diagonal electric-blue bands on yellow and trailing fin filaments in adults.
reef
Purple Tang
A vivid violet surgeonfish with a contrasting yellow tail, native to Red Sea coral reefs.
reef
Rainbow Runner
A slender, torpedo-bodied jack with two vivid blue-green stripes, found roaming warm oceans worldwide, often trailing larger pelagic fish like tuna and sharks.
pelagic
Clarkii Clownfish
A hardy, variably colored anemonefish found across the widest range of any clownfish species, typically dark brown-orange with three white bars, and known for hosting in many different anemone species.
reef
Almaco Jack
A deep-bodied jack with a tall, strongly notched dorsal fin and elongated fin lobes, commonly found around tropical reefs and offshore structure.
reef
Spangled Emperor
The spangled emperor is a large, pale grey-green emperor fish of the Indo-Pacific, marked by fine blue spangles on its scales and a strong, crushing jaw for cracking shellfish.
reef
Black Rockfish
A dark, deep-bodied schooling rockfish common over rocky reefs and kelp forests along the Pacific coast, often seen in large surface-oriented aggregations.
saltwater
Naso Tang
A large surgeonfish with bright orange lips and a yellow tail-base marking, grazing algae along Indo-Pacific reef slopes.
reef
Passer Angelfish
An eastern-Pacific angelfish with a dark blue body, a single white vertical bar, and a yellow tail.
reef
Regal Tang
An unmistakable royal-blue surgeonfish with a black palette pattern and bright yellow tail, popularized worldwide as the character Dory, commonly seen darting among branching corals.
reef
Allen's Damselfish
A slender, iridescent blue damselfish with a bright yellow tail, native to reefs of the Coral Triangle and known for its striking two-tone coloration.
reef
Blue Tang
A vivid royal-blue reef fish with a black palette-shaped marking and a bright yellow tail, popularized worldwide after appearing in animated film.
reef
Sebae Clownfish
A dark brown clownfish with a bold yellow tail and two white body bars, native to reefs of the northern Indian Ocean and closely tied to the sebae sea anemone.
reef
Palette Surgeonfish
The vivid blue-and-black Blue Tang, famous for its palette-shaped markings and bright yellow tail; an Indo-Pacific coral reef species that feeds mainly on drifting plankton rather than algae.
reef
Banded Pipefish
The banded pipefish is a slender reef fish patterned with bold reddish-brown and white rings along its entire body, ending in a fan-shaped yellow tail fin marked with a dark spot.
reef
Island Trevally
The Island Trevally is a deep-bodied jack found around Indo-Pacific reefs, recognized by faint yellow-orange spots scattered along its silvery flanks and a forked yellow tail.
reef
Regal Angelfish
The Regal Angelfish is a striking orange-and-blue-striped reef fish with a large dark eye patch and a bold yellow tail, found on well-developed coral reefs across the Indo-Pacific.
reef