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.

all freshwater saltwater reef pelagic cartilaginous deepsea brackish

Jack Mackerel

A slender, schooling temperate-water jack found off southern Australia and New Zealand, identifiable by its bony lateral scutes and vital role as forage for larger ocean predators.

Pelagic Stingray

Pelagic Stingray

A uniquely oceanic stingray that never touches the seabed, drifting through warm and temperate seas worldwide while feeding on squid and small fish.

Mahi-Mahi

A fast-growing, brilliantly colored open-ocean fish that gathers around floating debris and sargassum, easily recognized by its iridescent blue-green-gold body and long continuous dorsal fin.

Leerfish

A powerful surf-zone predator of the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean, known as garrick in South Africa and unique among jacks for its smooth, scute-free lateral line.

Little Tunny

A speedy, hard-fighting mackerel relative marked by distinctive wavy dark markings on its back, found in warm coastal and offshore waters of the Atlantic and Mediterranean.

Northern Anchovy

Northern Anchovy

A small, slender schooling fish with a pointed snout and large mouth, abundant along the Pacific coast of North America, where it forms a key part of the California Current forage base.

Longtail Tuna

A coastal tuna of the Indo-West Pacific with a notably slender, elongated body and a long, low second dorsal fin, often found closer to shore than other tunas.

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.

Marlin

A large, powerful open-ocean billfish with a long rounded spear-like bill and a tall crested back, prized as one of the ocean's fastest and most sought-after game fish.

Herring

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.

Japanese Sardine

A schooling pelagic fish abundant in the waters around Japan, the Japanese Sardine undergoes dramatic multi-decade population cycles and forms one of the largest single-species biomasses in the northwest Pacific.

King Mackerel

A large, streamlined mackerel of the warm western Atlantic, prized as a fast offshore game fish and recognizable by its silvery, unmarked body.

Japanese Anchovy

Japanese Anchovy

A small, abundant schooling fish found throughout the coastal waters of Japan, Korea, and China, the Japanese Anchovy is one of the most heavily fished species in the western Pacific and a vital link in regional marine food webs.

Japanese Amberjack

Japanese Amberjack

The Japanese Amberjack, or yellowtail, is a streamlined pelagic jack from the northwestern Pacific, identified by its bright yellow lateral stripe and yellow-tinged fins.

Kawakawa

A compact, fast schooling tuna of the Indo-Pacific with a wavy dark pattern on its back and several distinctive dark spots between the pectoral and pelvic fins.

Green Jack

The Green Jack is a schooling eastern Pacific jack with a greenish-blue back, silvery sides, and yellowish lower fins, common in coastal surface waters.

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.

Garfish

A long, silvery, needle-jawed fish of European coastal waters, instantly recognizable by its bright green backbone and slender, beak-like snout.

Frigate Mackerel

Frigate Mackerel

A small tuna-like fish with a distinctive dark, wavy tiger-stripe pattern on its upper back, found in warm oceanic waters worldwide.

European Anchovy

European Anchovy

A slender, small-bodied schooling fish with a distinctive pointed snout and underslung mouth, found in enormous shoals along European and North African coasts and throughout the Mediterranean.

European Pilchard (Sardine)

European Pilchard (Sardine)

A small, silvery schooling fish found along the eastern Atlantic coast and throughout the Mediterranean, forming vast shoals that graze on plankton near the surface of coastal waters.

Crevalle Jack

A powerfully built, silvery jack with a steep forehead and a black spot on its gill cover, common along coastal and estuarine waters of the Atlantic.

Devil Ray

A large, winged filter-feeding ray that cruises the open ocean in graceful undulating flight, often seen leaping clear of the water.

Cownose Ray

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

Crocodile Needlefish

Crocodile Needlefish

One of the largest needlefish, with a massive, tooth-filled snout and a slender silvery body; a powerful surface predator of tropical and subtropical seas worldwide.

Cottonmouth Jack

Cottonmouth Jack

A plain, silvery-grey deep-water jack named for the pale interior of its mouth, found over continental shelves and slopes across tropical oceans worldwide.

Chub Mackerel

A widespread schooling mackerel found in temperate and subtropical seas worldwide, marked by irregular dark bars on its back and faint spots along its lower flanks.

Cero Mackerel

A slender, fast-swimming mackerel of Caribbean and western Atlantic waters, identified by a bronze-yellow stripe and rows of yellow-orange spots along its silvery sides.

Cobia

A large, elongated, shark-like fish that roams warm coastal waters worldwide and often follows rays, turtles, and floating structure.

Bluefish

An aggressive, fast-swimming coastal predator famous for feeding in frenzied schools and slicing through baitfish with razor-sharp teeth.

Butterfish

A disc-shaped, silvery schooling fish of the northwestern Atlantic shelf, the Butterfish migrates seasonally between inshore and offshore waters and often shelters near jellyfish as a juvenile.

California Flyingfish

The largest flyingfish species in the eastern Pacific, this stout, silvery glider uses its oversized wing-like fins to skim above the waves off California and Mexico.

Atlantic 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.

Bigeye Tuna

A large, deep-diving tuna named for its notably large eyes, adapted for hunting in the dim light of deep water far below the ocean surface.

Blue Marlin

A massive, cobalt-blue billfish with a long spear-like bill, the Blue Marlin is one of the fastest and largest predators of the open tropical ocean.

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.

Blue Whiting

Blue whiting is a slender, silvery-blue deep-water relative of cod that forms enormous schools across the northeastern Atlantic, distinguished by its large eyes and lack of a chin barbel.

Blackwing Flyingfish

Blackwing Flyingfish

A stocky, wide-ranging flyingfish named for its large dusky-black pectoral wings, found gliding above open ocean surface waters across much of the world's warm and temperate seas.

Blackfin Tuna

The smallest member of the true tuna genus, this fast schooling fish sports a dark blue-black back and yellow, black-edged finlets, ranging through warm western Atlantic waters.

Blue Runner

A slender, greenish-blue jack common along the western Atlantic coast, often called the hardtail and known for its schooling habits and role as forage for larger predators.

Bonito

A fast, streamlined relative of the tunas and mackerels, marked by bold dark diagonal stripes across its upper back, found in schools across temperate and warm seas.

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.

Bigeye Scad Sardine

Bigeye Scad Sardine

Often mistaken for a true sardine because of its silvery, schooling habits, the bigeye scad is actually a jack recognizable by its unusually large eyes.

Bandwing Flyingfish

Bandwing Flyingfish

A small, slender flyingfish of the tropical Atlantic, identified by the dark crossbands on its otherwise translucent pectoral wing fins as it glides over the open sea.

African Pompano

African Pompano

A deep-bodied jack whose juveniles trail extraordinarily long fin filaments while drifting near floating debris, maturing into steep-headed adults over deep reefs and wrecks.

Arctic Cod

Arctic cod, or polar cod, is a small, ice-associated Gadidae found throughout the circumpolar Arctic, recognized by its slender body, deeply forked tail, and role as the region's key forage fish.

Atlantic Bluefin Tuna

Atlantic Bluefin Tuna

A massive, torpedo-shaped, deep blue-backed tuna built for speed and long-distance migration across the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea.

Atlantic Bonito

Atlantic Bonito

A streamlined, fast-swimming relative of tuna and mackerel, marked by dark oblique stripes running across its steel-blue back.