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.
Spot Croaker
Spot is a small, deep-bodied estuarine fish easily identified by a single dark shoulder spot and faint oblique bars along its upper body.
brackish
Atlantic Croaker
The Atlantic Croaker is a silvery-bronze estuarine fish with a single chin barbel and faint wavy mottling, abundant along the western Atlantic coast.
brackish
Croaking Gourami
A small Southeast Asian gourami capable of producing an audible croaking sound using modified pectoral fin muscles, marked with iridescent blue-green stripes and spots along a brownish body.
freshwater
Meagre
The Meagre is a large, golden-silver sciaenid of the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean, among the biggest members of the drum family.
saltwater
Star Drum
One of the smallest drums in the western Atlantic, an elongated silvery fish often found in dense schools over soft coastal bottoms.
saltwater
Flyingfish
The common name for fish of the family Exocoetidae, known for gliding above the ocean surface on enlarged, wing-like fins; the Flyingfish (*Exocoetus volitans*) represents this widespread tropical group.
pelagic
Sturgeon
An ancient family of large, armored bony fish with bony scutes instead of scales and a shark-like barbeled snout. Sturgeon migrate between rivers and the sea to spawn and are among the most endangered fish groups.
brackish
Burbot
The burbot is the only fully freshwater member of the cod family, an eel-shaped, mottled predator found in cold lakes and rivers across the Northern Hemisphere.
freshwater
Oarfish
An extraordinarily long, silver, ribbon-shaped deep-sea fish with a red crest and trailing fin rays, rarely seen alive at the surface and among the longest bony fish known.
deepseaCombtooth Blenny
A general term for the large blenny family Blenniidae, small scaleless fish named for the comb-like row of fine teeth many species use to graze algae.
saltwaterSleeper Goby
A stout, goby-like estuarine fish that rests motionless on the bottom for long stretches, distinguished from true gobies by its separate (unfused) pelvic fins.
brackishCusk Eel
An elongated, eel-shaped deep-sea fish whose family holds the record for the deepest fish ever documented, recovered from a trench nearly 8,400 meters down.
deepseaSnailfish
A tadpole-shaped, scaleless fish family found from shallow tide pools to the deepest ocean trenches; hadal-zone species hold the record for the deepest fish ever observed.
deepsea
Needlefish
The common name for slender, surface-dwelling fish of the family Belonidae, recognized by long jaws lined with sharp teeth; the Needlefish (*Strongylura marina*) represents this widespread predatory group.
saltwater
Ocean Sunfish
The ocean sunfish is the heaviest bony fish alive, a flattened giant with no true tail that drifts through temperate and tropical seas feeding on jellyfish.
pelagic
Black Marlin
A massive, powerful billfish of the Indo-Pacific known for its rigid, immovable pectoral fins and status as one of the largest bony fish in the ocean.
pelagic
Bluefin Tuna
One of the largest and fastest bony fish in the ocean, the Bluefin Tuna is a warm-blooded, torpedo-shaped predator capable of long transoceanic migrations across the Atlantic.
pelagic
Mola Mola
The heaviest bony fish in the world, an enormous, flattened, disc-shaped giant that appears to be missing a tail, often seen basking sideways at the ocean's surface.
pelagic
American Shad
The largest member of the herring family in North America, this deep-bodied, silvery, anadromous fish spends most of its life at sea before migrating up coastal rivers each spring to spawn.
brackish
Goliath Grouper
One of the largest bony fish on Atlantic reefs, the goliath grouper is a massive, mottled brown ambush predator that shelters around wrecks, caves, and mangrove-lined shorelines.
reef
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
Halfbeak
The common name for slender, surface-swimming fish of the family Hemiramphidae, marked by a short upper jaw and a long, needle-like lower jaw; the Common Halfbeak represents the group.
saltwater
Boxfish
A rigid, box-shaped Indo-Pacific reef fish encased in fused bony plates; juveniles are bright yellow with black spots, dulling to olive-grey tones as adults.
reef
Sculpin
A broad-headed, bottom-dwelling fish of the family Cottidae, represented here by the widespread Pacific Staghorn Sculpin, known for its large fan-like pectoral fins and mottled camouflage on sandy and muddy bottoms.
saltwater