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.
Yellow Tang
A brilliant all-yellow surgeonfish common on Pacific coral reefs, especially around Hawaii, easily recognized by its disc-shaped body and sharp tail spine.
reef
Yellowfin Tuna
A sleek, fast-swimming tuna named for its long, bright yellow dorsal and anal fins, found in tropical and subtropical oceans worldwide.
pelagic
Yellow Perch
A golden-yellow freshwater fish marked by dark vertical bars and orange-tinged fins, native to lakes and slow-moving rivers across North America. It is one of the most abundant and widely recognized panfish species.
freshwater
Yellowtail Snapper
A slender Caribbean reef fish with a bold golden stripe running from snout to its deeply forked yellow tail. Often seen swimming in open water above reefs rather than hugging the bottom.
reef
Worm Pipefish
A tiny, tailless pipefish that hides among seaweed and rock-pool fronds along European rocky shores, resembling a thin brown worm more than a typical fish.
saltwater
White Sturgeon
The white sturgeon is the largest freshwater fish in North America, an armored, long-snouted giant found in Pacific coast rivers from California to British Columbia.
freshwater
Yellowtail
A streamlined, silvery jack with a distinctive yellow stripe running along its flanks and a yellow tail, found in temperate coastal waters worldwide.
pelagic
Whitetail Surgeonfish
A slender, dark-bodied tang with a strikingly pale, forked tail, often seen hovering in groups over Indo-Pacific reef drop-offs to feed on drifting zooplankton.
reef
Wolf Cichlid
One of the largest Central American cichlids, this powerful predator combines vivid turquoise and orange coloration with formidable jaws.
freshwaterWitch Flounder
A slender, tongue-shaped deep-water North Atlantic flatfish with plain grayish-brown coloration, fine scales, and a preference for cold muddy shelf and slope bottoms.
deepsea
Yellowtail Flounder
A slender northwest Atlantic flatfish recognized by the rusty-yellow tint along its tail edge, reddish-brown upper body, and preference for sandy continental shelf bottoms.
saltwaterZebra Danio
A small, torpedo-shaped freshwater fish famous for the bold horizontal blue and gold stripes running the length of its body, and widely used as a model species in scientific research.
freshwater
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
Yellowtail Wrasse
A striking Indo-Pacific wrasse whose bright red spotted juveniles transform into green-blue adults with a yellow tail.
reef
X-ray Tetra
A translucent coastal South American characin whose see-through body and bold black-white-yellow fin markings make it instantly recognizable.
brackish
Yellowtail Blue Damselfish
A small, vividly electric-blue damselfish with a sharply contrasting bright yellow tail, common on shallow reef flats and lagoons of the western Pacific.
reef
Whitespotted Puffer
A common Indo-Pacific reef puffer with a dark olive-brown body scattered with small white spots and distinctive dark rings around its eyes, gills, and pectoral fin bases.
reef
Wideband Clownfish
A dark brown-to-black anemonefish with a single thick white band across the mid-body, restricted to temperate-edge reefs around Lord Howe Island, eastern Australia, and New Caledonia.
reef
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
Yellowfin Grouper
The yellowfin grouper is a reddish-brown to olive reef grouper of the Caribbean and western Atlantic, easily recognized by the bright yellow patch on its pectoral fins.
reef
Yellowfin Croaker
A silvery drum common in Pacific surf zones, recognized by faint diagonal lines along its flanks and yellow-tinted fins.
saltwater
Von Rio Tetra
A small, fiery-red tetra native to coastal rivers near Rio de Janeiro, notable for two dark shoulder spots and deep red hindquarters.
freshwater
Walking Catfish
A hardy Southeast Asian catfish capable of breathing air and moving across land between bodies of water using its pectoral spines.
freshwater
Yellowtail Damselfish
A dark, deep-bodied Caribbean damselfish with a bright yellow tail, known for aggressively farming algae gardens.
reef
Zebra Mbuna
One of the most iconic Lake Malawi cichlids, the zebra mbuna is highly variable in color across populations but typically shows bold barring, and it forms the basis for one of the aquarium hobby's most popular mbuna groups.
freshwater
Whiptail Catfish
Whiptail Catfish are slender, armored South American catfish named for their long, tapering tail, often seen grazing algae along riverbeds.
freshwater
Yellow Longnose Butterflyfish
A bright yellow Indo-Pacific butterflyfish with a very long tweezer-like snout and a black eyespot near the tail.
reef
Yucatan Molly
A large sailfin livebearer native to the coastal waters of the Yucatan Peninsula, known for the male's dramatically tall, sail-like dorsal fin used in courtship.
brackish
Yellowfin Surgeonfish
One of the largest surgeonfishes, reaching 70 cm, identified by a bright yellow pectoral-fin patch and blue-ringed eyes; found in lagoons and bays across the Indo-Pacific and eastern Pacific.
reef
Whiting
The whiting is a slender, silvery member of the cod family found across northeastern Atlantic shelf seas, easily recognized by the small black blotch at the base of its pectoral fin.
saltwater
Whitecheek Tang
A dark brown to black surgeonfish set apart by a bright white patch beneath the eye and a narrow orange tail band, commonly seen grazing rubble zones on Indo-Pacific reefs.
reef
Yellow Stingray
A small, boldly patterned stingray of the western Atlantic and Caribbean, often seen resting on sand near coral reefs and seagrass beds in shallow, clear water.
reefWinter Flounder
The winter flounder is a small, right-eyed flatfish of the northwest Atlantic, named for its habit of moving into shallow coastal bays during the colder months.
saltwater
White Bass
A deep-bodied, silvery schooling bass with faint horizontal stripes, common in large freshwater lakes and rivers of the central United States, known for its spring spawning runs.
freshwater
White Seabass
The White Seabass is a large Pacific coast drum with a bluish-bronze back and silvery sides, closely associated with California's kelp forests.
saltwaterWhite Croaker
The White Croaker is a pale, silvery-brassy sciaenid common in shallow Pacific coastal waters from British Columbia to Baja California.
saltwaterWhipnose Anglerfish
A deep-sea anglerfish with an extraordinarily long, whip-like fishing rod, often exceeding its own body length, tipped with a luminous lure trailed out in the darkness to draw in curious prey.
deepsea
Whale Shark
The largest fish in the world, a gentle filter-feeding shark covered in a distinctive checkerboard pattern of pale spots and stripes, found in warm seas worldwide.
cartilaginous
Wels Catfish
One of the largest freshwater fish in the world, the wels catfish is a scaleless, elongated predator native to European rivers and lakes, recognizable by its enormous flattened head and long barbels.
freshwaterWhite Marlin
A slender, fast-swimming billfish of the tropical and temperate Atlantic, known for its rounded fins and vivid blue-white coloration.
pelagicWhite Weakfish
A slender, pale silvery-white weakfish common in estuaries and coastal lagoons along the South American Atlantic coast.
brackishTwo-spot Red Snapper
The two-spot red snapper, or bohar snapper, is a large, deep red Indo-Pacific reef predator, sometimes showing two pale saddle spots on the back, and an important predator on coral reef slopes.
reef
Tuna
A fast, powerfully built open-ocean fish capable of high-speed sustained swimming, ranging across warm and temperate seas worldwide in large migratory schools.
pelagic
White Hake
White hake is a large, elongated cod relative of the western North Atlantic shelf and slope, larger and grayer than red hake, with long pelvic fin filaments.
saltwater
Weather Loach
An elongated, eel-shaped East Asian loach known for becoming unusually active before storms, a behavior tied to its sensitivity to changes in barometric pressure.
freshwater
Weedy Seadragon
A slender, reddish-purple relative of the seahorse decorated with small leaf-like fin projections and yellow stripes, found along the temperate reefs of southern Australia.
reef
White's Seahorse
White's seahorse is an endangered species endemic to the temperate estuaries of eastern Australia, best known for colonizing artificial structures like marina pylons and 'seahorse hotels' installed for conservation.
reef
Upside-down Catfish
A small Central African catfish famous for habitually swimming belly-up, an unusual behavior reflected in its reversed body coloration.
freshwater