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.
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
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
Longnose Butterflyfish
A bright yellow butterflyfish with a greatly elongated snout used to pluck small invertebrates from reef crevices. It is one of the most widespread and recognizable butterflyfish across the Indo-Pacific.
reef
Flowery Flounder
An Indo-Pacific reef-associated flatfish densely covered in small blue rings and spots, giving a flower-like pattern, with both eyes on its upper left side.
reef
Fourstripe Damselfish
A white damselfish marked with three bold black bars plus a black tail, forming a four-banded pattern as it hovers around branching coral on Indo-Pacific reefs.
reef
Coral Grouper
The coral grouper is a vivid orange-red reef fish covered in small electric-blue spots, commonly seen darting among coral heads across the Indo-Pacific.
reef
Brown Surgeonfish
A small, plain brown Indo-Pacific tang that is nonetheless one of the most abundant algae-grazing reef fish, playing a key role in controlling reef algal growth.
reef
Bluespine Unicornfish
A large Indo-Pacific tang with a bony forehead horn and paired fixed blue-white spines at the tail base, browsing brown macroalgae on coral reefs and reef flats.
reef
Whitetail Surgeonfish
A slender, dark-bodied tang with a strikingly pale, forked tail, often seen hovering in groups over Indo-Pacific reef drop-offs to feed on drifting zooplankton.
reef
Targetfish
A silvery, deep-bodied fish marked with three or four bold, curving dark stripes running from head to tail, common in brackish estuaries across the Indo-Pacific.
brackish
Titan Triggerfish
The Titan Triggerfish is the largest triggerfish species, recognized by its olive-yellow body, pale moustache stripe, and famously territorial nest-guarding behavior on Indo-Pacific reefs.
reefSpaghetti Eel
An extremely thin, worm-like burrowing eel that spends most of its life buried in sandy or muddy estuarine bottoms across the Indo-Pacific, rarely seen in the open.
brackish
Spangled Emperor
The spangled emperor is a large, pale grey-green emperor fish of the Indo-Pacific, marked by fine blue spangles on its scales and a strong, crushing jaw for cracking shellfish.
reef
Ringtail Surgeonfish
A blue-grey Indo-Pacific tang identified by the narrow white ring encircling its tail base; common on coral and rocky reefs from East Africa to Hawaii.
reef
Longtail Tuna
A coastal tuna of the Indo-West Pacific with a notably slender, elongated body and a long, low second dorsal fin, often found closer to shore than other tunas.
pelagic
Clown Triggerfish
An unmistakable black-bodied Indo-Pacific triggerfish covered in bold white spots below, with yellow-orange lips; wedges into reef crevices using a locking dorsal spine.
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
Bluespotted Rabbitfish
A vividly colored rabbitfish with a yellow-orange body scattered with small electric-blue spots, commonly seen grazing coral-rich reef flats across the Indo-Pacific.
reef
Whitetip Reef Shark
A slender nocturnal reef shark marked by distinctive white-tipped fins, often seen resting motionless inside reef caves and under ledges by day across the Indo-Pacific.
reef
Whitespotted Moray
A brown moray eel densely covered in small, evenly spaced white spots, commonly seen with its head poking from crevices on shallow Indo-Pacific coral reefs.
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
Steephead Parrotfish
A large Indo-Pacific parrotfish named for its abruptly steep, blunt forehead, typically seen grazing algae and reef rock along outer reef slopes in small groups.
reef
Striped Catfish
An eel-shaped Indo-Pacific reef catfish marked with pale longitudinal stripes, whose juveniles form dense, tightly packed schooling balls over sand and reef flats.
reef
Stars and Stripes Puffer
A widespread Indo-Pacific puffer, also called the whitespotted puffer, marked with fine white spots on an olive-brown body and dark rings encircling the eyes and pectoral fin bases.
reef