Fish Identifier

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.

Blackfin Clownfish

Blackfin Clownfish

An orange anemonefish with a single white head bar and distinctive black-edged pelvic and anal fins, endemic to reefs around the Maldives and Sri Lanka.

reef

Pygmy Goby

One of the smallest vertebrates on Earth, this minute translucent goby perches in crevices on Indo-Pacific coral reefs and has an extraordinarily short lifespan.

reef
Sergeant Major

Sergeant Major

A common silvery damselfish marked with five bold black vertical bars, resembling military rank stripes, found on shallow tropical reefs.

reef
Sarpa Salpa

Sarpa Salpa

The sarpa salpa, or salema porgy, is a silvery sparid with golden stripes that grazes on algae over Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic reefs and seagrass beds.

reef
Pouting

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
Harlequin Tuskfish

Harlequin Tuskfish

A vividly colored wrasse with a turquoise-blue body crossed by orange bars and prominent protruding tusk-like teeth used to crush hard-shelled prey. It inhabits coral-rich reef slopes across the western Pacific.

reef
Purple Tang

Purple Tang

A vivid violet surgeonfish with a contrasting yellow tail, native to Red Sea coral reefs.

reef
Percula Clownfish

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
Giant Trevally

Giant Trevally

The largest of the trevallies, a powerful, deep-bodied predator of Indo-Pacific reefs and lagoons known for its steep head profile and ferocious ambush strikes.

reef
Garden Eel

Garden Eel

Garden Eels are slender, colony-forming eels that live permanently anchored in sandy burrows near reefs, swaying in the current as they catch drifting plankton.

reef
Almaco Jack

Almaco Jack

A deep-bodied jack with a tall, strongly notched dorsal fin and elongated fin lobes, commonly found around tropical reefs and offshore structure.

reef
Yellow Stingray

Yellow Stingray

A small, boldly patterned stingray of the western Atlantic and Caribbean, often seen resting on sand near coral reefs and seagrass beds in shallow, clear water.

reef
Weedy Seadragon

Weedy Seadragon

A slender, reddish-purple relative of the seahorse decorated with small leaf-like fin projections and yellow stripes, found along the temperate reefs of southern Australia.

reef
Tomtate

Tomtate

A small silvery grunt common over reefs and hard-bottom habitats of the western Atlantic, recognized by a dark blotch near the base of its tail fin.

reef
Pink Skunk Clownfish

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
Orange-lined Triggerfish

Orange-lined Triggerfish

The Orange-lined Triggerfish is a dark green triggerfish covered in bold curving orange stripes, one of the most vividly patterned fish on Indo-Pacific reefs.

reef
Yellow Tang

Yellow Tang

A brilliant all-yellow surgeonfish common on Pacific coral reefs, especially around Hawaii, easily recognized by its disc-shaped body and sharp tail spine.

reef
Vermilion Snapper

Vermilion Snapper

A slender, vivid pinkish-red snapper of deep offshore reefs and hard bottom, feeding mainly on plankton picked from the water column rather than the substrate.

reef
Two-Banded Clownfish

Two-Banded Clownfish

An orange anemonefish with two broad white bars, the characteristic clownfish of the Red Sea and adjacent Gulf of Aden reefs, always found sheltering among host anemones.

reef
Skunk Clownfish

Skunk Clownfish

A slender, pale peach-to-pink anemonefish marked by a single white stripe running from snout to tail, living in symbiosis with sea anemones on Indo-Pacific reefs.

reef
Rock Cod

Rock Cod

Rock cod is a common name for numerous Sebastes rockfish species found on rocky Pacific reefs, identified by their deep, spiny-finned body and mottled camouflage coloration.

saltwater
Scrawled Filefish

Scrawled Filefish

The Scrawled Filefish is a large, thin-bodied filefish covered in unique blue and black scribbled lines and spots, found drifting near reefs in tropical seas worldwide.

reef
Goliath Grouper

Goliath Grouper

One of the largest bony fish on Atlantic reefs, the goliath grouper is a massive, mottled brown ambush predator that shelters around wrecks, caves, and mangrove-lined shorelines.

reef
Catalina Goby

Catalina Goby

A tiny, vividly colored goby with electric blue bands over a red-orange body, found perched on rocky reefs and kelp holdfasts off the Pacific coast.

reef