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.
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.
pelagicHerring
One of the world's most abundant fish, the herring forms colossal schools in cold North Atlantic waters and underpins much of the region's marine food web.
pelagic
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
Blueback Herring
A slender, silvery anadromous herring closely related to the Alewife, distinguished by its deep blue-green back, that migrates from Atlantic coastal waters into freshwater rivers each spring to spawn.
brackishAtlantic Herring
A slender, silvery schooling fish that forms some of the largest shoals in the North Atlantic, feeding on plankton and serving as a key forage species for larger fish, seabirds, and marine mammals.
pelagic
Baltic Herring
A smaller, brackish-water subspecies of the Atlantic Herring, the Baltic Herring is adapted to the low-salinity Baltic Sea and forms one of the region's most abundant and ecologically important schooling fish.
brackish
Wolf Herring
A slender, silvery predator with a fanged, upturned jaw, the wolf herring hunts small fish in Indo-Pacific coastal waters despite belonging to the herring order.
saltwater
Dog Salmon Herring
Despite the name, this is the chum salmon, nicknamed 'dog salmon' for its prominent canine-like spawning teeth — a true Pacific salmon, not a herring.
saltwater
Pacific Hake
The Pacific hake is a slender, migratory relative of true cod found throughout the northeastern Pacific, easily told apart by its two dorsal fins, sharp-toothed jaws, and complete lack of a chin barbel.
pelagic
Pacific Halibut
The Pacific halibut is a massive right-eyed flatfish of the cold North Pacific, closely related to the Atlantic halibut and among the largest bony fish in its range.
saltwater
Pacific Hagfish
The Pacific hagfish is a jawless, eel-shaped deep-sea scavenger of the eastern Pacific known for releasing thick defensive slime and for feeding on carcasses on the ocean floor.
deepsea
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.
saltwaterPacific 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
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
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
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.
pelagicPacific Sardine
A silvery, spot-flanked schooling fish found along the Pacific coast of North America, famous for boom-and-bust population cycles driven by shifting ocean temperatures and historically massive coastal schools.
pelagic
Pacific Blackdragon
An eel-like deep-sea dragonfish whose females are entirely jet-black with a long chin barbel, while the tiny, non-feeding males look almost nothing like them.
deepsea
Pacific Anchovy
A small, slender schooling fish abundant along the eastern Pacific coast from Canada to Baja California, the Pacific Anchovy is a key forage species known for its long snout and prominent silvery lateral stripe.
pelagic
Pacific Red Snapper
A bright reddish-pink snapper of rocky reefs along the Eastern Pacific coast from Mexico to Peru, closely resembling its Atlantic namesake but found in a different ocean.
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
Pacific Blue-eye
A tiny, schooling fish common in coastal streams and estuaries of eastern Australia, easily recognized by its reflective, luminous blue eyes.
brackishPacific 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
Indo-Pacific Sailfish
The Indo-Pacific sailfish is a large, streamlined billfish famed for its towering, sail-like dorsal fin and status as one of the fastest fish in the ocean.
pelagic