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.
Leopard Danio
A spotted color morph of the Zebrafish, the Leopard Danio trades horizontal stripes for a striking pattern of dark spots across a golden body.
freshwater
Leopard Shark
A slender, boldly patterned houndshark common in shallow California bays, easily recognized by its dark saddle-like blotches and spots.
cartilaginous
Head and Tail Light Tetra
An Amazon and Guiana river characin named for its glowing metallic eye and tail-base spots, resembling a pair of tiny headlights.
freshwater
Pygmy Angelfish
A tiny deep-blue western-Atlantic dwarf angelfish with a bright yellow-orange face.
reef
Tropical Gar
A large-bodied gar native to Central American rivers and lakes, with a broad snout and faint dark spotting on its rear body and fins.
freshwater
Passer Angelfish
An eastern-Pacific angelfish with a dark blue body, a single white vertical bar, and a yellow tail.
reef
European Plaice
European plaice is a right-eyed flatfish easily recognized by the vivid orange spots scattered across its smooth brown upper side.
saltwater
Whale Shark
The largest fish in the world, a gentle filter-feeding shark covered in a distinctive checkerboard pattern of pale spots and stripes, found in warm seas worldwide.
cartilaginous
Spanish Mackerel
A slender, fast-swimming mackerel of the western Atlantic, easily identified by rows of bright yellow-gold spots scattered along its silvery flanks.
pelagic
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
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
Picasso Triggerfish
A boldly patterned triggerfish with geometric blue, yellow, and black markings, common on shallow Indo-Pacific reef flats.
reef
Von Rio Tetra
A small, fiery-red tetra native to coastal rivers near Rio de Janeiro, notable for two dark shoulder spots and deep red hindquarters.
freshwater
Sauger
A slender, olive-gold relative of the walleye, best known for the rows of black spots on its spiny dorsal fin and its love of murky river currents.
freshwater
Banggai Cardinalfish
The Banggai Cardinalfish is a striking silver-and-black fish with long trailing fins and bold white spots, native to a tiny area of Indonesia and listed as Endangered in the wild.
reef
Speckled Moray
A pale, densely speckled moray of Indo-Pacific reef flats, its white to cream body peppered with small black spots that thicken toward the tail.
reef
Kawakawa
A compact, fast schooling tuna of the Indo-Pacific with a wavy dark pattern on its back and several distinctive dark spots between the pectoral and pelvic fins.
pelagic
Diamond Goby
A slender, sand-sifting goby with rows of orange spots, prized for cleaning aquarium sand beds. Found on shallow lagoon flats throughout the Indo-Pacific.
reef
Leopard Bush Fish
A round-bodied Congo basin ambush predator patterned with dark leopard-like spots, prized in aquariums for its striking camouflage and air-breathing labyrinth organ.
freshwater
Chub Mackerel
A widespread schooling mackerel found in temperate and subtropical seas worldwide, marked by irregular dark bars on its back and faint spots along its lower flanks.
pelagic
Niger Triggerfish
A deep blue-green triggerfish with reddish teeth and a trailing crescent tail, often seen feeding on plankton above reef slopes.
reef
Bicolor Angelfish
A vivid dwarf angelfish split sharply into a bright yellow front half and deep blue rear half, a favorite of reef aquarists.
reefWhite Marlin
A slender, fast-swimming billfish of the tropical and temperate Atlantic, known for its rounded fins and vivid blue-white coloration.
pelagic
Margined Flyingfish
A large flyingfish with dark, blue-margined wing-like pectoral fins that glides across open tropical and subtropical seas.
pelagic