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.
River Lamprey
The river lamprey, also known as the lampern, is a small anadromous European lamprey that feeds parasitically on fish in coastal and estuarine waters before migrating into rivers to spawn.
brackish
Red Hake
Red hake is a slender, tapering groundfish of the western North Atlantic shelf, identified by its reddish-brown color, two dorsal fins, and long thread-like pelvic fin filaments.
saltwater
Rex Sole
A slender, deep-dwelling northeastern Pacific flatfish notable for unusually long pectoral fins and plain light brown coloration on cold continental shelf and slope bottoms.
deepsea
Redbanded Seabream
The redbanded seabream is a deep-bodied, pinkish-red sparid marked by four to five dark vertical bands, found over rocky and sandy bottoms in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean.
saltwater
Rohu
A large South Asian river carp with a streamlined, silvery-grey body, widely farmed across the Indian subcontinent as a major aquaculture species and prized angling fish.
freshwater
Rainbow Trout
A popular salmonid native to Pacific-drainage rivers of North America and Asia, known for its silvery body, dark spotting, and the broad pink-red stripe that gives the species its name.
freshwater
Pearl Gourami
A peaceful Southeast Asian labyrinth fish prized for its lace-like pearly pattern and a black stripe running from snout to tail, with males showing an orange throat and breast.
freshwater
Pufferfish
A slow-swimming reef fish famous for inflating its body into a spiny ball when threatened, using a fused beak-like set of teeth to feed on hard-shelled invertebrates and algae.
reef
Pipefish
A slender, elongated relative of the seahorse with a rigid, ring-plated body and tubular snout, commonly found camouflaged among seagrass and algae in coastal waters worldwide.
saltwater
Quillback Rockfish
A mottled brown and orange rockfish with a tall, dark-blotched spiny dorsal fin that gives it a distinctive quill-like silhouette, commonly found around rocky reefs and kelp.
saltwater
Pennant Coralfish
A black-and-white butterflyfish relative known for its long pennant-like dorsal filament, often mistaken for a juvenile Moorish idol as it drifts in loose reef aggregations.
reef
Pacific Jack Mackerel
A silvery, schooling open-water fish of the eastern Pacific, marked by a full ridge of bony scutes along its sides and an ecologically vital role as forage for larger predators.
pelagic
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
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
Orange Chromide
A small, bright orange-yellow cichlid from South Asian estuaries, marked by a single dark spot near the tail. It is the smallest member of its genus and a popular, peaceful aquarium fish.
brackish
Leerfish
A powerful surf-zone predator of the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean, known as garrick in South Africa and unique among jacks for its smooth, scute-free lateral line.
pelagic
Magnificent Rabbitfish
A striking white rabbitfish patterned with bold black head markings and a black-edged dorsal fin, giving it a panda-like appearance among the more brightly colored reef rabbitfishes.
reef
Longfin Trevally
A moderately deep-bodied Indo-Pacific trevally recognized by its elongated, filament-like dorsal and anal fin tips, typically found alone over sandy coastal bottoms.
reef
Lawnmower Blenny
The Lawnmower Blenny is a mottled brown-and-cream reef fish with a stocky body and comb-like teeth, known for grazing algae off rock and rubble surfaces on shallow Indo-Pacific reefs.
reef
Longfin African Conger
A slender, sand-dwelling conger with a distinctly long dorsal fin and a two-tone body, found burrowing along reef flats and lagoons across the Indo-Pacific and East African coast.
reef
Inshore Hagfish
The inshore hagfish is a jawless, slime-producing scavenger found burrowing in muddy coastal seabeds off Japan, Korea, and China, closer to shore than most other hagfish species.
saltwater
Immaculate Puffer
A plain, unmarked Indo-Pacific puffer with a smooth grayish-brown body, subtle pale belly, and dark rings around the eyes, often found over sandy and muddy coastal habitats.
saltwater
Kelp Bass
The kelp bass is a mottled olive-brown temperate reef fish closely tied to kelp forests along the eastern Pacific coast, often seen hovering near kelp fronds and rocky structure.
saltwater
Honeycomb Moray
One of the largest and most strikingly marked moray eels, its pale body covered in bold black honeycomb-shaped blotches makes it instantly recognizable across Indo-Pacific reefs.
reef