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.
Pouting
Also called bib, the Pouting is a deep-bodied, coppery-bronze gadoid common around rocky reefs and wrecks of the northeastern Atlantic and Mediterranean.
saltwater
Sailfin Molly
Named for the male's spectacular, sail-like dorsal fin, this coastal livebearer from the southeastern United States and Mexico is a striking sight in brackish marshes and aquariums alike.
brackish
Queen Parrotfish
A blue-green Caribbean parrotfish with a bold yellow band across the snout, commonly seen grazing algae along reef slopes and flats throughout the region.
reef
Salmon-red Rainbowfish
A deep-bodied rainbowfish endemic to Lake Sentani in Papua, Indonesia, where mature males develop a vivid overall salmon-red to orange coloration.
freshwater
Purple Spotted Gudgeon
A stocky, olive-brown Australian freshwater fish covered in scattered iridescent purple-blue spots, favoring weedy, slow-moving streams and lagoons.
freshwater
Saddleback Clownfish
A dark, saddle-marked clownfish that shelters among the tentacles of large sea anemones on sandy reef slopes and lagoons across the Indo-Pacific.
reef
Rachovi Killifish
A vividly colored annual killifish from coastal Mozambique, with males showing a turquoise body and a tricolor red-yellow-blue tail. It lives in temporary floodplain pools near Beira.
freshwater
Sebae Clownfish
A dark brown clownfish with a bold yellow tail and two white body bars, native to reefs of the northern Indian Ocean and closely tied to the sebae sea anemone.
reef
Pink Skunk Clownfish
A pale pink anemonefish with a single white stripe running down its back, found living among sea anemones on reefs across the Indo-Pacific.
reef
Scissortail Rasbora
A slender silver rasbora named for its striking black-and-white tail markings that open and close in a scissor-like motion while swimming.
freshwater
Peacock Blenny
A shallow-water Mediterranean blenny in which breeding males grow a tall fleshy head crest and a bold eyespot on the dorsal fin.
saltwater
River Lamprey
The river lamprey, also known as the lampern, is a small anadromous European lamprey that feeds parasitically on fish in coastal and estuarine waters before migrating into rivers to spawn.
brackish
Pigfish
A grunt of Atlantic and Gulf coast estuaries, marked by diagonal rows of small blue and gold spots and named for its pig-like grunting sound.
brackish
Red Gurnard
A reddish-pink bottom-dweller of European seas, the Red Gurnard has an armored head and finger-like pectoral rays it uses to walk and sense prey along the seafloor.
saltwater
Pearlscale Butterflyfish
A western-Pacific butterflyfish with a cross-hatched pearly body and a bright orange rear and tail.
reef
Ram Cichlid
A small, dazzlingly colorful South American dwarf cichlid prized for its violet-blue iridescence and peaceful, pair-bonding nature.
freshwater
Passer Angelfish
An eastern-Pacific angelfish with a dark blue body, a single white vertical bar, and a yellow tail.
reef
Red Hake
Red hake is a slender, tapering groundfish of the western North Atlantic shelf, identified by its reddish-brown color, two dorsal fins, and long thread-like pelvic fin filaments.
saltwater
Pacific Saury
A slender, silvery, beaked schooling fish of the temperate North Pacific, closely related to needlefish, marked by a row of small finlets near its tail.
pelagic
Red-eye Tetra
A hardy, wide-ranging South American characin identified by its striking red iris band and bold black-and-white marked tail base.
freshwater
Pacific Herring
A slender, silvery schooling fish closely related to the Atlantic Herring, found in cold coastal waters across the North Pacific, where it forms a critical forage base for fish, seabirds, and marine mammals.
pelagic
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
Parkinson's Rainbowfish
A large, robust rainbowfish from the eastern rivers of Papua New Guinea, with mature males displaying a striking golden-orange rear half contrasting with a bluish-silver front.
freshwater
Red Phantom Tetra
A blackwater Orinoco characin with a rosy translucent body and bold black shoulder mark, known for its tall, flag-like dorsal fin in males.
freshwater
Pearl Danio
A slender, iridescent danio with a shifting pearly sheen of blue, pink, and gold along its flanks, native to fast-flowing Southeast Asian streams.
freshwater
Randall's Goby
A small, striped shrimp goby that shares a burrow with a pistol shrimp, hovering nearby to pick zooplankton from the water column while watching for danger.
reef
Pacific Cod
A heavy-bodied, bottom-dwelling relative of the Atlantic Cod found across the cold North Pacific, recognized by its large head, chin barbel, and mottled brown coloring.
saltwater
Redeye Bass
A small, stream-dwelling black bass named for its bright red eyes, native to rocky, fast-flowing rivers of the southeastern Appalachian foothills.
freshwaterPacific Menhaden
A deep-bodied, silvery schooling fish found along the Pacific coast of South America, marked by a row of dark spots along its flank and adapted to feeding within the highly productive Humboldt Current upwelling system.
pelagic
Rock Bass
A robust, bronze-colored sunfish relative with striking red eyes, often found around rocky cover in clear streams and lakes of eastern and central North America.
freshwater
Pacific Mackerel
A schooling pelagic fish of the eastern Pacific with an iridescent blue-green back marked by irregular dark bars and scattered spots along its lower flanks.
pelagic
Robust Ghost Pipefish
The robust ghost pipefish is the largest species in its family, with a plainer, leaf-like body that mimics drifting seagrass, algae, or sargassum rather than the frillier crinoid-mimicking patterns of its relatives.
reef
Pacific Lamprey
The Pacific lamprey is a jawless, anadromous fish with a toothed sucking disc mouth, found along Pacific coastlines from Baja California to Japan and Alaska.
saltwater
Redtail Catfish
A large South American river catfish easily recognized by its dark body, cream underside, and vivid orange-red tail fin.
freshwaterPacific Bluefin Tuna
A massive, warm-bodied tuna capable of ocean-basin migrations across the entire North Pacific, recognized by its deep, torpedo-shaped body and short pectoral fins.
pelagic
Ruby Seadragon
The ruby seadragon is a rare, deep-dwelling relative of the leafy and weedy seadragons discovered in 2015 off Western Australia. Unlike its relatives, it lacks leaf-like appendages and has a distinctive reddish body.
reef
Panther Grouper
An unmistakable Indo-Pacific grouper with a pale gray body covered in round black spots, a small head, and a distinctive humped, sloping forehead profile.
reef
Reef Needlefish
A long, slender, silvery needlefish with elongated toothy jaws, commonly seen cruising just below the surface over Indo-Pacific coral reefs and reef flats.
reef
Peacock Goby
A small, brightly colored sleeper goby from Papua New Guinea, with a rounded body patterned in iridescent blue spots over an orange-to-purple base. A dark eye-like spot near the tail gives it its scientific species name.
freshwater
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
Percula Clownfish
A bright orange anemonefish with three bold white bars outlined in black, famous for its symbiotic partnership with sea anemones on western Pacific reefs.
reef
Round Herring
Named for its unusually rounded, cylindrical body, the Round Herring is a schooling coastal pelagic fish found in temperate and subtropical seas worldwide, serving as an important forage species for larger predators.
pelagic
Peacock Gudgeon
A vividly colored, peaceful gudgeon from Papua New Guinea, prized in aquariums for its blue-spangled body, orange fins, and calm temperament rare among small predatory fish.
freshwaterRibbon Halfbeak
An extraordinarily thin, ribbon-shaped halfbeak of the open ocean, with a long needle-like lower jaw and greatly elongated fins that let it skitter and glide across the surface.
pelagic
Peacock Bass
A powerful, brilliantly colored cichlid from South America, prized for its golden-green flanks, dark vertical bars, and the distinctive eyespot at the base of its tail.
freshwater
Rock Cook
A tiny olive-brown wrasse of northeastern Atlantic kelp reefs, the Rock Cook forages among rocks and crevices and can change sex during its lifetime.
saltwater
Peacock Flounder
A tropical Atlantic flatfish famous for rapid color-changing camouflage and a pattern of small blue rings on a sandy brown body, with both eyes clustered on its upper left side.
reef
Rock Goby
A small, mottled goby common in rocky tide pools along European and North African coasts, easily spotted darting between rocks at low tide.
saltwater