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.
Redear Sunfish
A deep-bodied sunfish named for the bright red-orange margin on its black ear flap, notable for its specialized diet of snails and other mollusks in warm southern lakes and ponds.
freshwater
Achilles Tang
A striking black surgeonfish with a bold orange-red teardrop marking near its tail and matching scalpel-like tail spine. It inhabits high-surf reef zones across the Pacific.
reef
Rummy-nose Tetra
A small schooling Amazonian tetra known for its bright red-orange snout and a bold black-and-white striped tail fin, prized in aquariums for its striking coloration and tight shoaling behavior.
freshwater
Ringed Pipefish
The ringed pipefish is an alternate name for the vividly banded Dunckerocampus dactyliophorus, named for the many bold rings encircling its slender body from head to its yellow, black-spotted tail fin.
reef
Pumpkinseed
A small, brilliantly colored sunfish with an orange-spotted body, blue-green facial streaks, and a distinctive red spot on the black ear flap, common in weedy ponds and lakes of eastern North America.
freshwater
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
Longsnout Seahorse
A slender, long-snouted seahorse native to the western Atlantic that anchors itself to soft corals and mangrove roots with its prehensile tail. It comes in a wide range of colors, from yellow and orange to red and black.
reef
Vermiculated Angelfish
A small pygmy-group angelfish with a bold yellow head, blue-black body etched with fine wavy vermiculated blue lines, commonly seen darting around coral rubble on Indo-Pacific reefs.
reef
Six Line Wrasse
The Six Line Wrasse is a small, brightly colored reef fish with six narrow orange stripes running along a purple-blue body and a black spot near the tail, often darting through coral rubble.
reef
Round Goby
A bottom-dwelling goby native to the Black and Caspian Sea basins, now a widespread invasive species in the Great Lakes and parts of Europe, recognized by its fused pelvic fins and dark spot on the front dorsal fin.
freshwater
Redtail Notho
A small East African annual killifish from Zanzibar, prized for the male's vivid red, black-edged tail. It lives in temporary rain pools and survives the dry season as drought-resistant eggs buried in mud.
freshwater
Dragon Moray
One of the most ornately marked moray eels, easily recognized by its long tubular nostrils resembling horns and a striking mottled orange, white, and black pattern that has made it a favorite subject for underwater photographers.
reef
Figure-Eight Puffer
A small brackish-water pufferfish named for the bold black figure-eight-shaped markings across its yellow-green back. Like other puffers, it can inflate its body with water as a defense against predators.
brackish
Knight Goby
A small, boldly patterned goby from Southeast Asian estuaries, pale gray-white with scattered black spots and blotches along its slender body. It perches on the bottom, propped on its fused pelvic fins, watching for small prey.
brackish
Bala Shark
A torpedo-shaped, silver freshwater fish named for its shark-like body outline, though it is a true minnow relative, not a shark. Bold black margins on its fins make it a striking, fast-swimming schooler of Southeast Asian rivers.
freshwater
Tautog
A large, robust, dark-mottled wrasse tied closely to rocky reefs and wrecks along the western Atlantic coast, known for its powerful shellfish-crushing jaws.
saltwaterWinter Flounder
The winter flounder is a small, right-eyed flatfish of the northwest Atlantic, named for its habit of moving into shallow coastal bays during the colder months.
saltwater
Red Bream
The red bream, or blackspot seabream, is a pink-tinged sparid with a dark shoulder spot that lives over rocky and sandy bottoms in the northeastern Atlantic and Mediterranean.
saltwater
Fingerprint Filefish
The Fingerprint Filefish is a small reef filefish with a dark head, orange-brown body marked by fine irregular lines, and a bright orange tail.
reef
Fathead Minnow
A small, hardy North American minnow famous as baitfish and a standard toxicology test species, able to survive low-oxygen, turbid water most fish avoid.
freshwater
Klein's Butterflyfish
A golden-brown Indo-Pacific butterflyfish with a dark eye bar and dusky patches, common on many reefs.
reef
Deep-sea Smelt
A small, silvery-bodied deep-sea fish that drifts through the dark midwater zone feeding on tiny plankton, forming a key link in deep ocean food webs.
deepsea
Ocellaris Rabbitfish
A bright yellow rabbitfish marked by a single dark eye-like spot near the dorsal fin, closely related to the foxface but with a more rounded, less angular snout.
reef
Chili Rasbora
One of the smallest cyprinids in the aquarium hobby, the Chili Rasbora is an intensely red nano fish native to Borneo's acidic blackwater swamps.
freshwater