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.
Crevalle Jack
A powerfully built, silvery jack with a steep forehead and a black spot on its gill cover, common along coastal and estuarine waters of the Atlantic.
pelagicJack Mackerel
A slender, schooling temperate-water jack found off southern Australia and New Zealand, identifiable by its bony lateral scutes and vital role as forage for larger ocean predators.
pelagic
Mangrove Jack
A deep red Indo-Pacific snapper whose juveniles grow up in mangrove estuaries and rivers, tolerating salinities from freshwater to full seawater.
brackish
Green Jack
The Green Jack is a schooling eastern Pacific jack with a greenish-blue back, silvery sides, and yellowish lower fins, common in coastal surface waters.
pelagic
Black Jack
The Black Jack is a large, uniformly dark trevally that forms big schools around offshore tropical reefs and current-swept drop-offs across the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic Oceans.
reef
Cottonmouth Jack
A plain, silvery-grey deep-water jack named for the pale interior of its mouth, found over continental shelves and slopes across tropical oceans worldwide.
pelagic
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 Jack
A reef-associated western Atlantic jack easily recognized by the bright yellow wash on its fins and tail, often seen patrolling reef edges in small schools.
reef
Jack Dempsey
A robust Central American cichlid named after a boxing champion for its feisty temperament, known for iridescent blue-green speckling that develops as it matures.
freshwater
Bar Jack
A sleek, blue-green jack with a dark stripe along its back and a black-and-white striped tail, common on Caribbean and western Atlantic reefs.
reef
Horse-eye Jack
A deep-bodied, silvery jack with an oversized eye, commonly seen in large stationary schools around Caribbean and Florida reefs and harbors.
reef
Pacific Jack Mackerel
A silvery, schooling open-water fish of the eastern Pacific, marked by a full ridge of bony scutes along its sides and an ecologically vital role as forage for larger predators.
pelagic
Jacksmelt
A larger, long-bodied silverside found along the California and Baja coasts, often schooling in bays and nearshore waters alongside the smaller Topsmelt.
saltwater
Jackknife-fish
A boldly black-and-white striped reef drum with a dramatic, curved dorsal fin that resembles the blade of an open jackknife.
reef
Pilotfish
A boldly barred open-ocean jack famous for closely trailing sharks and other large marine animals for shelter and feeding opportunities.
pelagic
Port Jackson Shark
A distinctive, slow-moving Australian bullhead shark with a blunt pig-like snout, bold harness-shaped markings, and blunt crushing teeth for eating shellfish.
saltwater
Blue Runner
A slender, greenish-blue jack common along the western Atlantic coast, often called the hardtail and known for its schooling habits and role as forage for larger predators.
pelagic
Chain Pickerel
A slender, elongated ambush predator with a distinctive dark chain-like pattern over green sides, common in weedy lakes and sluggish rivers of the eastern United States.
freshwater
Rainbow Runner
A slender, torpedo-bodied jack with two vivid blue-green stripes, found roaming warm oceans worldwide, often trailing larger pelagic fish like tuna and sharks.
pelagic
African Pompano
A deep-bodied jack whose juveniles trail extraordinarily long fin filaments while drifting near floating debris, maturing into steep-headed adults over deep reefs and wrecks.
pelagic
Bigeye Trevally
A large, silvery-to-black reef jack famous for forming massive, swirling daytime schools around Indo-Pacific reef passes and drop-offs.
reef
Yellowtail
A streamlined, silvery jack with a distinctive yellow stripe running along its flanks and a yellow tail, found in temperate coastal waters worldwide.
pelagic
Pompano
A deep-bodied, silvery jack with a forked tail, found along sandy coastal shores of the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean.
saltwater
Golden Trevally
A bright golden-yellow jack, often banded as a juvenile, found around coral reefs and lagoons throughout the Indo-Pacific.
reef