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.
Longnose Butterflyfish
A bright yellow butterflyfish with a greatly elongated snout used to pluck small invertebrates from reef crevices. It is one of the most widespread and recognizable butterflyfish across the Indo-Pacific.
reef
Yellow Longnose Butterflyfish
A bright yellow Indo-Pacific butterflyfish with a very long tweezer-like snout and a black eyespot near the tail.
reef
Longnose Chimaera
A deep-water cartilaginous fish related to sharks, marked by an unmistakably long pointed snout and a slender tapering body cruising continental slopes far below sunlight.
cartilaginous
Longnose Hawkfish
A red-and-white lattice-patterned hawkfish with an unmistakable elongated snout, perched motionlessly on gorgonian sea fans across the Indo-Pacific.
reef
Longnose Gar
A slender, torpedo-shaped freshwater fish with an extremely long, narrow, tooth-lined snout, easily recognized among North American fish by its needle-like jaws.
freshwater
Threadfin Butterflyfish
A widespread Indo-Pacific butterflyfish identified by a pale yellow body, dark diagonal stripes, a black eye-band, and a distinctive trailing filament on the rear dorsal fin.
reef
Raccoon Butterflyfish
A round, orange-and-white butterflyfish with a black mask-like eye band, named for its raccoon-like facial markings.
reef
Copperband Butterflyfish
The Copperband Butterflyfish has a silvery-white body banded in copper-orange and a long, slender snout used to probe crevices, along with a black eyespot near the tail that helps confuse predators.
reef
Saddleback Butterflyfish
A large Indo-Pacific butterflyfish with a bold black 'saddle' patch edged in white on the upper rear body.
reef
Racoon Butterflyfish
An Indo-Pacific butterflyfish with a black 'mask' over the eyes bordered by white and a broad yellow body.
reef
Pearlscale Butterflyfish
A western-Pacific butterflyfish with a cross-hatched pearly body and a bright orange rear and tail.
reef
Ornate Butterflyfish
A showy Indo-Pacific butterflyfish with diagonal orange stripes across a white body and black-and-yellow face bands.
reef
Klein's Butterflyfish
A golden-brown Indo-Pacific butterflyfish with a dark eye bar and dusky patches, common on many reefs.
reef
Foureye Butterflyfish
A Caribbean butterflyfish with a large false eyespot near the tail and a real eye hidden by a dark bar.
reef
Freshwater Butterflyfish
The freshwater butterflyfish is a surface-dwelling African fish with huge wing-like pectoral fins that let it glide above the water to snatch insects, giving it its butterfly-like name.
freshwater
Banded Butterflyfish
A white Caribbean butterflyfish crossed by bold black vertical bands, including one masking the eye.
reef
Auriga Butterflyfish
A very common Indo-Pacific butterflyfish with cross-hatched white body, yellow rear, and often a trailing dorsal filament.
reef
Horseface Loach
The Horseface Loach is a slender, burrowing loach recognized by its elongated, downturned snout, native to sandy-bottomed rivers of Southeast Asia.
freshwater
Pennant Coralfish
A black-and-white butterflyfish relative known for its long pennant-like dorsal filament, often mistaken for a juvenile Moorish idol as it drifts in loose reef aggregations.
reef