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.
White Hake
White hake is a large, elongated cod relative of the western North Atlantic shelf and slope, larger and grayer than red hake, with long pelvic fin filaments.
saltwater
Convict Tang
A pale gray surgeonfish marked with six or seven bold black vertical bars, resembling a prisoner's uniform, that grazes algae in large schools.
reef
Caribbean Reef Shark
The most commonly encountered large shark on Caribbean reefs, a stocky gray requiem shark often seen resting motionless on the sea floor.
reef
Black Skirt Tetra
A silvery-gray tetra with a flowing black skirt-like tail and fins, whose dark coloration typically fades somewhat as the fish matures.
freshwater
Wrestling Halfbeak
Named for the ritualized jaw-locking contests between rival males, the wrestling halfbeak is a slender surface-dwelling fish from Southeast Asian creeks and mangrove-fringed brackish waters.
brackish
Yellow Seahorse
A widespread and highly variable Indo-Pacific seahorse, commonly seen in bright yellow though also occurring in black, orange, or mottled brown, found from mangrove estuaries to coral reefs.
reef
Lake Trout
A large, deep-lake char native to cold northern North American waters, marked by pale spots on a dark greenish-gray body and a deeply forked tail. It typically inhabits the coldest, deepest zones of large lakes.
freshwater
Lemon Shark
A stocky, yellow-brown coastal shark named for its sandy coloration, recognized by two nearly equal-sized dorsal fins, common in shallow mangrove and reef habitats of the western Atlantic and eastern Pacific.
cartilaginous
Silver Scat
A disc-shaped, silvery fish marked with dark vertical bars, found schooling in brackish estuaries and mangroves across the Indo-Pacific and northern Australia.
brackish
Scopas Tang
A deep-bodied, disc-shaped surgeonfish usually seen in muted brown to gray tones, valued on reefs and in aquariums alike as an efficient, hardy algae grazer.
reef
Bolivian Ram
A hardier, calmer cousin of the German Blue Ram, this South American dwarf cichlid sports a soft gray-gold body with a ruby-edged dorsal fin.
freshwater
Black Phantom Tetra
A gray-black Paraguay basin characin known for its dramatic sail-like dorsal fin displays and mild social hierarchy behavior among males.
freshwater
Blackspotted Puffer
The Blackspotted Puffer, also called the dog-faced puffer, is a small reef pufferfish with a gray, yellow, or blue body scattered with a few large dark spots.
reef
Barramundi Cod
The Australian common name for the panther grouper, a pale gray, black-spotted reef grouper instantly recognizable by its small head and steeply humped forehead.
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
Longsnout Seahorse
A slender, long-snouted seahorse native to the western Atlantic that anchors itself to soft corals and mangrove roots with its prehensile tail. It comes in a wide range of colors, from yellow and orange to red and black.
reef
Blue Rockfish
A schooling rockfish with dark blue-gray coloring, commonly seen in large numbers around kelp forests and rocky reefs along the Pacific coast of North America.
saltwater
Reticulated Pufferfish
A puffer of Indo-Pacific mangroves and estuaries, patterned with fine dark reticulated lines over a pale body and often marked with a network of interconnected markings resembling a map.
brackish
Orangeshoulder Tang
A gray-bodied surgeonfish marked by a bold orange patch behind the gill cover, often seen grazing sandy rubble zones adjacent to Indo-Pacific coral reefs.
reef
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
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
Unicornfish
A large gray-brown surgeonfish named for the forward-pointing bony horn projecting from its forehead, an important herbivore grazing tough brown algae on Indo-Pacific reef flats.
reef
Basking Shark
The world's second-largest fish, a massive gray-brown filter feeder recognized by its enormous gaping mouth and huge gill slits, often seen basking at the surface in cool temperate seas.
cartilaginous
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