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.
Horn Shark
A small, harmless bottom shark with heavy brow ridges and two sharp dorsal spines, common along the California coast.
cartilaginous
Japanese Halfbeak
A slim, silvery surface fish with a long lower jaw, common in coastal and brackish waters around Japan, Korea, and China.
brackish
Auriga Butterflyfish
A very common Indo-Pacific butterflyfish with cross-hatched white body, yellow rear, and often a trailing dorsal filament.
reef
Variable Platyfish
A close relative of the common platy, the variable platyfish is native to northeastern Mexico and shows exceptional natural variation in color and pattern, giving rise to many popular aquarium strains.
freshwater
Red Grouper
The red grouper is a heavy-bodied, reddish-brown reef fish common on rocky and coral bottoms of the Gulf of Mexico and western Atlantic, known for excavating shallow depressions in sediment.
reef
Orangespine Unicornfish
A hornless unicornfish marked by a black eye mask, yellow dorsal stripe, and vivid orange blade-like spines at the tail base; common on shallow Indo-Pacific reefs.
reef
Mummichog
A stout, hardy killifish common in salt marshes and estuaries along the North American Atlantic coast, well known for its extreme tolerance of changing salinity and oxygen levels.
brackish
Flyingfish
The common name for fish of the family Exocoetidae, known for gliding above the ocean surface on enlarged, wing-like fins; the Flyingfish (*Exocoetus volitans*) represents this widespread tropical group.
pelagic
Yellowfin Croaker
A silvery drum common in Pacific surf zones, recognized by faint diagonal lines along its flanks and yellow-tinted fins.
saltwaterWhite Croaker
The White Croaker is a pale, silvery-brassy sciaenid common in shallow Pacific coastal waters from British Columbia to Baja California.
saltwater
Tompot Blenny
A large, bold blenny with elaborate branched eye tentacles, common on rocky reefs and harbor walls around the British Isles and Mediterranean.
saltwater
Tub Gurnard
The largest common European gurnard, with a reddish armored body and enormous, brilliantly blue-green pectoral fins that it spreads when disturbed.
saltwater
Silver Perch
The Silver Perch is a small, bright silvery sciaenid common in seagrass and oyster reef habitats along the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf coasts.
brackish
Queenfish
A small, slender drum common in California bays and nearshore waters, notable for forming large, tightly packed schools near the surface.
saltwater
Little Skate
A small, common skate of the northwest Atlantic continental shelf, widely used in biological research and frequently caught as bycatch in coastal trawls.
cartilaginous
Leopard Shark
A slender, boldly patterned houndshark common in shallow California bays, easily recognized by its dark saddle-like blotches and spots.
cartilaginous
Gulf Flounder
A left-eyed flatfish common along the Gulf of Mexico and southeastern Atlantic coast, marked by three distinctive eyespots arranged in a triangle.
saltwater
Giant Mudskipper
The largest common mudskipper species, a heavy-bodied, predatory amphibious goby that patrols mangrove mudflats across South and Southeast Asia.
brackish
Blackbarred Halfbeak
A silvery halfbeak marked with faint dark vertical bars, common over seagrass beds and reef flats across the Indo-Pacific.
reef
Undulated Moray
A common Indo-Pacific reef moray with bold wavy, maze-like dark markings over a pale body, often seen with its head poking from reef crevices.
reef
Spotfin Flyingfish
A slender, dark-backed flyingfish with long, spotted pectoral "wings" that let it glide above the ocean surface to escape predators. Common throughout tropical and warm-temperate seas worldwide.
pelagic
Sheepshead Bream
The sheepshead bream, or white seabream, is a silvery sparid marked by dark vertical bars and a black tail-base spot, common over rocky reefs and seagrass in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic.
reef
Black Sea Bass
A stocky, dark-bodied grouper relative common on rocky reefs and wrecks along the temperate western Atlantic coast, easily recognized by its high arched back and blunt head.
reef
Yellowtail Blue Damselfish
A small, vividly electric-blue damselfish with a sharply contrasting bright yellow tail, common on shallow reef flats and lagoons of the western Pacific.
reef