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.
Rockfish
Rockfish is a broad name for the roughly 100-plus Sebastes species of the North Pacific, spiny-finned, long-lived fish closely tied to rocky reefs and kelp forests.
saltwater
Vermilion Rockfish
A vivid orange-red rockfish of Pacific coast reefs, often called 'red snapper' informally by anglers despite being unrelated to true snappers.
saltwater
Kelp Rockfish
A mottled brown-and-olive rockfish closely tied to kelp forest habitat along the California coast, where its coloring provides camouflage among kelp stipes and rocky understory.
saltwater
Grass Rockfish
A stocky, olive-green rockfish adapted to very shallow rocky habitats and tide pools, among the most tolerant rockfish species of low-oxygen, wave-exposed environments.
saltwater
China Rockfish
Easily recognized by a bold yellow stripe running down its black body, the China rockfish is a small, secretive reef dweller of the northeastern Pacific.
saltwater
Widow Rockfish
A bronze-brown, large-eyed rockfish that forms dense midwater schools over the outer continental shelf and was once the target of one of the Pacific coast's largest groundfish fisheries.
saltwater
Yellowtail Rockfish
A slender, olive-brown Pacific rockfish with yellow-tinted fins that schools in large midwater aggregations over rocky reefs and open water along the North American coast.
saltwater
Tiger Rockfish
A brightly patterned rockfish with bold dark vertical bars across a pink to reddish body, resembling its namesake big cat and typically found in deeper rocky reef crevices.
saltwater
Rosy Rockfish
A small, brightly colored rockfish with rose-pink coloring and dark saddle blotches, found on rocky reefs along the California coast.
saltwater
Quillback Rockfish
A mottled brown and orange rockfish with a tall, dark-blotched spiny dorsal fin that gives it a distinctive quill-like silhouette, commonly found around rocky reefs and kelp.
saltwater
Copper Rockfish
A coppery-brown rockfish with a pale pink-white band along the back half of its body, commonly found near rocky structure and eelgrass beds close to shore.
saltwater
Canary Rockfish
A vivid orange-and-gray rockfish of the Pacific continental shelf, easily recognized by its bright orange fins and mottled orange-and-gray body pattern.
saltwater
Blue Rockfish
A schooling rockfish with dark blue-gray coloring, commonly seen in large numbers around kelp forests and rocky reefs along the Pacific coast of North America.
saltwater
Black Rockfish
A dark, deep-bodied schooling rockfish common over rocky reefs and kelp forests along the Pacific coast, often seen in large surface-oriented aggregations.
saltwater
Red Gurnard
A reddish-pink bottom-dweller of European seas, the Red Gurnard has an armored head and finger-like pectoral rays it uses to walk and sense prey along the seafloor.
saltwater
Red Hake
Red hake is a slender, tapering groundfish of the western North Atlantic shelf, identified by its reddish-brown color, two dorsal fins, and long thread-like pelvic fin filaments.
saltwater
Red Grouper
The red grouper is a heavy-bodied, reddish-brown reef fish common on rocky and coral bottoms of the Gulf of Mexico and western Atlantic, known for excavating shallow depressions in sediment.
reef
Red Lionfish
Instantly recognizable for its fan-like, striped fins and venomous spines, the red lionfish is a native Indo-Pacific reef predator that has become a damaging invasive species in the Western Atlantic.
reef
Red Snapper
A rosy-red snapper of the Gulf of Mexico and southeastern U.S. coast, recognized by its sloped profile, sharp triangular teeth, and bright red eyes.
reef
Red Drum
The Red Drum is a coppery-bronze coastal fish of the western Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, best known for the dark eyespot near its tail.
brackish
Red Bream
The red bream, or blackspot seabream, is a pink-tinged sparid with a dark shoulder spot that lives over rocky and sandy bottoms in the northeastern Atlantic and Mediterranean.
saltwater
Red Rainbowfish
A striking, deep-bodied rainbowfish endemic to Lake Sentani in Papua, New Guinea, with adult males turning an intense salmon-red as they mature.
freshwater
Red Devil Cichlid
A bold, thick-lipped Nicaraguan cichlid known for its fiery orange-red or white coloration and famously feisty, combative temperament.
freshwater
Salmon-red Rainbowfish
A deep-bodied rainbowfish endemic to Lake Sentani in Papua, Indonesia, where mature males develop a vivid overall salmon-red to orange coloration.
freshwater