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.
Blood Parrot Cichlid
A rounded, vivid orange-red hybrid cichlid recognized by its permanently small, beak-like mouth and stubby, rounded fins.
freshwater
Denison Barb
A striking torpedo-shaped barb endemic to fast hill streams of India's Western Ghats, known for its bold red-black-yellow stripe and endangered status.
freshwater
Sturgeon
An ancient family of large, armored bony fish with bony scutes instead of scales and a shark-like barbeled snout. Sturgeon migrate between rivers and the sea to spawn and are among the most endangered fish groups.
brackish
Celestial Pearl Danio
A tiny, jewel-like danio with a dark blue body covered in pearly spots and orange-red banded fins, discovered only in the mid-2000s in Myanmar.
freshwater
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
Brook Trout
A colorful char native to cold, clear streams of eastern North America, marked by worm-like back markings and red spots haloed in blue along its sides. It is highly sensitive to water quality and temperature.
freshwater
Allis Shad
A large anadromous herring relative native to Europe's Atlantic coast, the Allis Shad spends most of its life at sea but migrates into large rivers each spring to spawn, forming runs that have been much reduced.
brackish
Guineafowl Pufferfish
The Guineafowl Pufferfish is a variably colored reef puffer, most often dark brown to black with small white spots, resembling the plumage of a guineafowl bird.
reef
Orange-lined Triggerfish
The Orange-lined Triggerfish is a dark green triggerfish covered in bold curving orange stripes, one of the most vividly patterned fish on Indo-Pacific reefs.
reef
Black Molly
A solid-black, selectively bred color strain of the common molly, the black molly is one of the most recognizable and widely kept aquarium livebearers.
freshwater
Green Sturgeon
The green sturgeon is the most marine-adapted North American sturgeon, ranging widely along the Pacific coast and entering rivers only occasionally to spawn.
saltwater
Tiger Shark
A large, robust shark named for the dark vertical bars on its flanks, most vivid in juveniles, known for an unusually broad, opportunistic diet.
cartilaginous
Reef Stonefish
The reef stonefish is the classic, rock-mimicking stonefish of coral reef flats, considered one of the most venomous fish in the sea and virtually invisible against reef rubble.
reef
Mediterranean Flyingfish
The most common flyingfish of the Mediterranean Sea, with long, mottled pectoral fins and a slender body built for gliding above coastal pelagic waters.
pelagicHerring
One of the world's most abundant fish, the herring forms colossal schools in cold North Atlantic waters and underpins much of the region's marine food web.
pelagic
Spiny Dogfish
A slender, small schooling shark with sharp spines in front of each dorsal fin and no anal fin, one of the most abundant sharks worldwide.
cartilaginous
Gulf Kingfish
The palest and most silvery of the surf kingfishes, found in wave-swept sandy beaches from the mid-Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico.
saltwater
American Eel
The American Eel spends most of its life in North American rivers and estuaries before migrating once to the Sargasso Sea to spawn and die.
freshwater
Shanny
The most common rockpool blenny of the northeastern Atlantic, the Shanny is a stout, big-eyed fish that tolerates the harsh, fluctuating conditions of the intertidal zone.
saltwater
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
Silky Shark
A slender, deep-water pelagic shark with smooth, silky-textured skin, among the most abundant sharks found around tropical open-ocean waters.
pelagic
Maroon Clownfish
The largest and most aggressive anemonefish, with a deep maroon body and bold white or gold bars, fiercely guarding its host anemone.
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
Atlantic Cod
A large, heavy-bodied bottom fish with a distinctive chin barbel and three dorsal fins, the Atlantic Cod is one of the North Atlantic's most historically significant and heavily studied fish species.
saltwater