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.
Rock Gunnel
A slender, eel-like intertidal fish of the North Atlantic, the Rock Gunnel hides under rocks and seaweed and is marked by a row of pale-ringed spots along its dorsal fin.
saltwater
Megamouth Shark
An enormous, gentle filter-feeding shark with a massive rounded mouth, discovered only in 1976 and still one of the rarest sharks on record.
deepsea
Reef Croaker
A coppery-golden drum associated with Caribbean coral reefs, unusual among croakers for its strong reef affinity rather than open sand or mud habitat.
reef
Mediterranean Flyingfish
The most common flyingfish of the Mediterranean Sea, with long, mottled pectoral fins and a slender body built for gliding above coastal pelagic waters.
pelagic
Redtail Splitfin
A colorful Mexican goodeid livebearer, with males showing a vivid orange-red tail band contrasting a steel-blue body, popular in the aquarium trade.
freshwater
Pigfish
A grunt of Atlantic and Gulf coast estuaries, marked by diagonal rows of small blue and gold spots and named for its pig-like grunting sound.
brackish
Ringed Pipefish
The ringed pipefish is an alternate name for the vividly banded Dunckerocampus dactyliophorus, named for the many bold rings encircling its slender body from head to its yellow, black-spotted tail fin.
reef
Panther Grouper
An unmistakable Indo-Pacific grouper with a pale gray body covered in round black spots, a small head, and a distinctive humped, sloping forehead profile.
reef
Pacific Red Snapper
A bright reddish-pink snapper of rocky reefs along the Eastern Pacific coast from Mexico to Peru, closely resembling its Atlantic namesake but found in a different ocean.
reef
Peacock Goby
A small, brightly colored sleeper goby from Papua New Guinea, with a rounded body patterned in iridescent blue spots over an orange-to-purple base. A dark eye-like spot near the tail gives it its scientific species name.
freshwater
Pumpkinseed
A small, brilliantly colored sunfish with an orange-spotted body, blue-green facial streaks, and a distinctive red spot on the black ear flap, common in weedy ponds and lakes of eastern North America.
freshwater
Percula Clownfish
A bright orange anemonefish with three bold white bars outlined in black, famous for its symbiotic partnership with sea anemones on western Pacific reefs.
reef
Pictus Catfish
A small, active South American catfish marked with dark spots over a silvery body and extremely long, trailing barbels.
freshwater
Peacock Gudgeon
A vividly colored, peaceful gudgeon from Papua New Guinea, prized in aquariums for its blue-spangled body, orange fins, and calm temperament rare among small predatory fish.
freshwater
Pufferfish
A slow-swimming reef fish famous for inflating its body into a spiny ball when threatened, using a fused beak-like set of teeth to feed on hard-shelled invertebrates and algae.
reef
Peacock Bass
A powerful, brilliantly colored cichlid from South America, prized for its golden-green flanks, dark vertical bars, and the distinctive eyespot at the base of its tail.
freshwater
Pygmy Corydoras
The Pygmy Corydoras is one of the smallest armored catfish species, a tiny schooling fish native to slow-moving tributaries of the Amazon basin.
freshwater
Peacock Flounder
A tropical Atlantic flatfish famous for rapid color-changing camouflage and a pattern of small blue rings on a sandy brown body, with both eyes clustered on its upper left side.
reef
Plains Killifish
A slender, sand-colored killifish adapted to the wide, shallow, shifting-sand rivers of the North American Great Plains, marked with narrow dark vertical bars.
freshwaterPacific Sardine
A silvery, spot-flanked schooling fish found along the Pacific coast of North America, famous for boom-and-bust population cycles driven by shifting ocean temperatures and historically massive coastal schools.
pelagic
Pipefish
A slender, elongated relative of the seahorse with a rigid, ring-plated body and tubular snout, commonly found camouflaged among seagrass and algae in coastal waters worldwide.
saltwater
Margined Flyingfish
A large flyingfish with dark, blue-margined wing-like pectoral fins that glides across open tropical and subtropical seas.
pelagic
Pennant Coralfish
A black-and-white butterflyfish relative known for its long pennant-like dorsal filament, often mistaken for a juvenile Moorish idol as it drifts in loose reef aggregations.
reef
Moray Eel
A long, serpentine reef predator that hides in crevices by day, identified by its scaleless body, continuous fin along the back, and powerful jaws with a rarely seen second set of pharyngeal jaws.
reef
Pacific Jack Mackerel
A silvery, schooling open-water fish of the eastern Pacific, marked by a full ridge of bony scutes along its sides and an ecologically vital role as forage for larger predators.
pelagic
Mrigal
A slender, silvery Indian carp and one of the three traditional Indian major carps, the mrigal is a bottom-feeding scavenger with a small mouth and short barbels, farmed widely across South Asia.
freshwater
Pacific Hake
The Pacific hake is a slender, migratory relative of true cod found throughout the northeastern Pacific, easily told apart by its two dorsal fins, sharp-toothed jaws, and complete lack of a chin barbel.
pelagic
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
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
Molly Miller Blenny
A hardy little blenny that perches motionless on shallow rocks in tropical Atlantic tide pools, easily recognized by the fringed tentacles above its eyes.
saltwater
Pacific Blue-eye
A tiny, schooling fish common in coastal streams and estuaries of eastern Australia, easily recognized by its reflective, luminous blue eyes.
brackish
Midas Cichlid
A large, variably colored Central American cichlid, ranging from mottled gray to solid gold-orange, known for its bold and often combative nature.
freshwater
Pacific Hagfish
The Pacific hagfish is a jawless, eel-shaped deep-sea scavenger of the eastern Pacific known for releasing thick defensive slime and for feeding on carcasses on the ocean floor.
deepsea
Mulloway
A large, powerful drum found around Australia, South Africa, and parts of Asia, known for its silvery body, bronze sheen, and impressive size.
saltwater
Pacu
A large Amazon and Orinoco characin related to piranhas but herbivorous, identified by its reddish belly and flattened, fruit-crushing teeth.
freshwater
Marbled Grouper
The marbled grouper is an uncommon western Atlantic reef fish with a distinctive dark, marbled or streaked pattern that gives way to a dark 'charcoal' belly, often seen near caves and drop-offs.
reef
Pajama Cardinalfish
A small, egg-shaped reef fish with a yellow-striped head and red-spotted rear body, resembling patterned sleepwear.
reef
Potato Grouper
The potato grouper is one of the largest reef groupers, a pale grey fish covered in dark blotches resembling potato skin, found on Indo-Pacific reefs and known for its curious, approachable behavior toward divers.
reef
Paddlefish
A large, ancient North American fish with a long paddle-shaped snout used to detect plankton, related to sturgeon rather than sharks despite its shark-like tail.
freshwater
Rainbow Wrasse
A slender Mediterranean and eastern-Atlantic wrasse; terminal males have a vivid orange zigzag stripe along a blue-green body.
saltwater
Peacock Grouper
The peacock grouper is a dark-bodied reef predator patterned with bright blue spots and pale bars, native to the Indo-Pacific and introduced to Hawaiian waters.
reef
Racoon Butterflyfish
An Indo-Pacific butterflyfish with a black 'mask' over the eyes bordered by white and a broad yellow body.
reef
Penguin Tetra
An Amazonian characin recognized by its bold black tail stripe and unusual head-up swimming posture resembling a penguin's stance.
freshwater
Piranha
A deep-bodied South American river fish famed for its sharp interlocking teeth and coordinated group feeding behavior, though most species are opportunistic scavengers.
freshwater
Palette Surgeonfish
The vivid blue-and-black Blue Tang, famous for its palette-shaped markings and bright yellow tail; an Indo-Pacific coral reef species that feeds mainly on drifting plankton rather than algae.
reef
Queenfish
A small, slender drum common in California bays and nearshore waters, notable for forming large, tightly packed schools near the surface.
saltwater
Peacock Wrasse
A colorful Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic wrasse whose males display vivid green-blue bodies with orange spots and blue facial stripes, commonly seen darting among rocky reefs and seagrass beds.
saltwater
Potter's Angelfish
A small Hawaiian endemic dwarf angelfish, rusty orange with blue-grey and fine wavy blue lines.
reef