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.
Ocellate River Stingray
A striking South American freshwater stingray with bold eyespot-like rings across its disc, common in the Amazon and Paraná river basins and popular in the aquarium trade.
freshwater
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
Mako Shark
The fastest shark species, built for speed with a sleek, metallic blue body, pointed snout, and crescent-shaped tail, roaming open temperate and tropical oceans worldwide.
cartilaginous
Gulf Menhaden
A deep-bodied, oily-scaled herring relative that forms enormous schools in Gulf of Mexico estuaries, playing a major role as a forage fish in coastal food webs.
brackish
Gold Dust Molly
A selectively bred molly variety combining a golden-yellow base color with fine black speckling, developed in the aquarium trade from wild Poecilia stock.
freshwater
Grass Rockfish
A stocky, olive-green rockfish adapted to very shallow rocky habitats and tide pools, among the most tolerant rockfish species of low-oxygen, wave-exposed environments.
saltwater
Football Fish
A round, warty deep-sea anglerfish whose much larger females dangle a bioluminescent lure from a spine above the mouth to draw prey through the permanent darkness of the deep ocean.
deepsea
Dwarf Gourami
A small, colorful labyrinth fish from South Asia, with males displaying vivid diagonal red and blue stripes, popular in the freshwater aquarium trade.
freshwater
Ember Parrotfish
The vivid orange-red juvenile color phase of the Redlip Parrotfish, prized in the aquarium trade for its fiery hue before it transforms into a much larger blue-green adult.
reef
Dwarf Livebearer
One of the smallest fish species in the world, this tiny freshwater livebearer from the southeastern United States is prized for its miniature size and easy breeding.
freshwater
Chub Mackerel
A widespread schooling mackerel found in temperate and subtropical seas worldwide, marked by irregular dark bars on its back and faint spots along its lower flanks.
pelagic
Cowfish
A horned relative of the boxfish, identified by paired forward-pointing spines above the eyes and a rigid box-shaped body; found in Indo-Pacific lagoons and seagrass beds.
reef
Common Dace
A slender, silvery cyprinid of clean, fast-flowing rivers, the common dace forms active shoals in mid-water, darting to snatch drifting insects from the current.
freshwaterCommon Minnow
A small, active cyprinid of cool, clean streams, the common minnow forms dense shoals over gravel, and breeding males develop vivid red bellies and bright spawning colors.
freshwater
Camouflage Grouper
A stocky, well-camouflaged Indo-Pacific grouper with a mottled brown-and-tan pattern of hexagonal blotches that helps it blend seamlessly into reef substrate.
reef
Blue Green Chromis
A small schooling damselfish with iridescent blue-green coloring, commonly seen in large groups hovering above branching coral on Indo-Pacific reefs.
reef
Black Drum
The Black Drum is a deep-bodied, greyish-black sciaenid with distinctive chin barbels, found in estuaries and coastal waters from the mid-Atlantic to Argentina.
brackish
Blacktip Reef Shark
A slender, small reef shark instantly recognized by the bold black tips on all its fins, commonly seen patrolling shallow lagoons and reef flats across the Indo-Pacific.
reef
Blue Devil Damselfish
A small, intensely electric-blue damselfish common on shallow Indo-Pacific reef flats, with males developing an orange-tinted tail during breeding season.
reef
Boxfish
A rigid, box-shaped Indo-Pacific reef fish encased in fused bony plates; juveniles are bright yellow with black spots, dulling to olive-grey tones as adults.
reef
Balloon Molly
A selectively bred molly variety with a distinctive rounded, ball-shaped body caused by a spinal curvature, developed and maintained through aquarium breeding.
freshwater
Bicolor Damselfish
A small reef fish sharply split into a dark front half and a pale rear half, common on Caribbean and western Atlantic coral reefs where it defends algae-covered territories.
reef
Weedy Seadragon
A slender, reddish-purple relative of the seahorse decorated with small leaf-like fin projections and yellow stripes, found along the temperate reefs of southern Australia.
reef
Tinfoil Barb
A large, fast-swimming barb with brilliant silver, mirror-like scales and orange-red fins, the tinfoil barb inhabits big Southeast Asian rivers and forms sizable shoals in open water.
freshwater