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.

Rummy-nose Tetra

Rummy-nose Tetra

A small schooling Amazonian tetra known for its bright red-orange snout and a bold black-and-white striped tail fin, prized in aquariums for its striking coloration and tight shoaling behavior.

freshwater
Shortnose Sturgeon

Shortnose Sturgeon

The shortnose sturgeon is a small, endangered anadromous fish of eastern North America, distinguished from its larger Atlantic sturgeon relative by a shorter, blunter snout.

brackish
Rummynose Tetra

Rummynose Tetra

A slender silvery tetra known for its bright red-orange snout and a bold black-and-white striped tail, prized for tight, synchronized shoaling.

freshwater
Bluegill

Bluegill

A common North American sunfish recognized by its deep, rounded body and the dark blotch on its gill cover, widely found in lakes and ponds and popular with anglers.

freshwater
Horseface Loach

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

Bluntnose Flyingfish

A small flyingfish with a short, blunt snout and large wing-like pectoral fins, gliding above the open tropical Atlantic.

pelagic
Cownose Ray

Cownose Ray

A migratory, schooling ray with a distinctive indented snout, famous for traveling in dense groups of hundreds along coastal waters.

pelagic
Bluespine Unicornfish

Bluespine Unicornfish

A large Indo-Pacific tang with a bony forehead horn and paired fixed blue-white spines at the tail base, browsing brown macroalgae on coral reefs and reef flats.

reef
Timor Halfbeak

Timor Halfbeak

A small, slender halfbeak of the genus Zenarchopterus with a needle-thin lower jaw, common in the brackish estuaries and coastal rivers of the Indo-Pacific near Timor and Southeast Asia.

brackish
Ribbon Eel

Ribbon Eel

The Ribbon Eel is a slender, brightly colored moray that changes from a black juvenile to a blue male to a yellow female over its lifetime while anchored in a sand burrow.

reef
Brown Surgeonfish

Brown Surgeonfish

A small, plain brown Indo-Pacific tang that is nonetheless one of the most abundant algae-grazing reef fish, playing a key role in controlling reef algal growth.

reef
Western Brook Lamprey

Western Brook Lamprey

The western brook lamprey is a small, non-parasitic jawless fish that spends most of its life as a burrowing larva in Pacific Northwest streams before a brief, non-feeding adult stage.

freshwater
Neon Goby

Neon Goby

A tiny reef fish with an electric blue stripe running nose to tail, best known for cleaning parasites off larger reef fish.

reef
Far Eastern Brook Lamprey

Far Eastern Brook Lamprey

A small, jawless, non-parasitic lamprey native to clear freshwater streams across Japan, Korea, and mainland East Asia, spending most of its life as a burrowing larva before a brief non-feeding adult stage.

freshwater
Bridled Burrfish

Bridled Burrfish

A small Caribbean burrfish with fixed, non-erectile spines and a pale body marked with fine dark reticulations and scattered blotches, often resting motionless among seagrass.

reef

Miller Lake Lamprey

The Miller Lake lamprey is a tiny, non-parasitic jawless fish historically restricted to a single lake and its tributary streams in Oregon, one of the smallest lamprey species known.

freshwater
Lyretail Killifish

Lyretail Killifish

A slender, non-annual West African killifish named for the male's elegant lyre-shaped tail, ranging in color from golden-orange to deep red across its native populations.

freshwater
Pacific Blackdragon

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
Gardner's Killifish

Gardner's Killifish

A small, brilliantly colored non-annual killifish from West African forest streams, with males showing an iridescent steel-blue body dotted with red spots and a lyre-shaped tail.

freshwater
Least Brook Lamprey

Least Brook Lamprey

The least brook lamprey is one of the smallest lamprey species in North America, a non-parasitic freshwater fish found in small streams of the central and southeastern United States.

freshwater
European Brook Lamprey

European Brook Lamprey

The European brook lamprey is a small, non-parasitic freshwater lamprey found across Europe, closely related to the river lamprey but spending its entire life cycle in streams and never feeding as an adult.

freshwater
American Brook Lamprey

American Brook Lamprey

The American brook lamprey is a small, non-parasitic freshwater lamprey found in clean streams across eastern North America, closely related to the Arctic lamprey but never feeding once it reaches adulthood.

freshwater
Kokanee Salmon

Kokanee Salmon

Kokanee are a landlocked, non-migratory form of sockeye salmon that spend their entire life in freshwater lakes, turning bright red during their autumn spawning run into tributary streams.

freshwater
Brook Lamprey

Brook Lamprey

The brook lamprey is a small, non-parasitic freshwater lamprey of Pacific Northwest streams that never feeds as an adult, spending most of its life buried as a filter-feeding larva.

freshwater