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.

Common Dragonet

Common Dragonet

A sand-dwelling northeastern Atlantic fish with striking sexual dimorphism, males growing a dramatically elongated dorsal fin and long tail streamers.

saltwater
Bloodfin Tetra

Bloodfin Tetra

A slim silvery tetra with bright red fins, prized as a hardy, active schooling fish that tolerates cooler water than most tropicals.

freshwater
Banded Gourami

Banded Gourami

A hardy South Asian labyrinth fish known for its diagonal orange-blue stripes and ability to gulp air in oxygen-poor water.

freshwater

Atlantic Silverside

A slender, schooling coastal fish common along the western Atlantic shoreline, marked by a bright silver stripe running down each flank.

brackish
Atlantic Croaker

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
Wahoo

Wahoo

One of the fastest fish in the ocean, the Wahoo is a slender, torpedo-shaped predator with iridescent blue-green tiger stripes, found in warm seas worldwide.

pelagic
Shovelnose Sturgeon

Shovelnose Sturgeon

The shovelnose sturgeon is the smallest and most abundant North American sturgeon, a slender river fish with a flattened snout and a thin whip-like tail filament.

freshwater
Flounder

Flounder

A flatfish with both eyes on its upper side that lies camouflaged against sandy or muddy bottoms, ambushing small fish and invertebrates that pass overhead.

saltwater
Golden Wonder Killifish

Golden Wonder Killifish

A golden-orange color form of the striped panchax, this hardy topminnow patrols the water's surface hunting insects and small fish in South Asian wetlands.

freshwater
Garibaldi

Garibaldi

A large, brilliant orange damselfish and the official marine state fish of California, found among rocky reefs and kelp forests of the temperate northeast Pacific.

reef
European Sea Bass

European Sea Bass

The European sea bass is a sleek, silvery predator common along European and North African coasts, prized by anglers as a hard-fighting sport fish.

saltwater
Bull Rout

Bull Rout

Known as the shorthorn sculpin elsewhere, the Bull Rout is a camouflaged, spiny-headed fish common in cold North Atlantic tide pools and rocky shores.

saltwater
Blacktip Shark

Blacktip Shark

A fast, energetic coastal shark named for the black tips on most of its fins, often seen leaping and spinning while chasing schooling fish.

saltwater
Arapaima

Arapaima

One of the largest freshwater fish in the world, this massive Amazonian species has thick armor-like scales and must surface periodically to breathe air.

freshwater
Rainbow Runner

Rainbow Runner

A slender, torpedo-bodied jack with two vivid blue-green stripes, found roaming warm oceans worldwide, often trailing larger pelagic fish like tuna and sharks.

pelagic
Mahseer

Mahseer

A powerful, large-scaled carp of fast Himalayan rivers, the golden mahseer is prized as one of the hardest-fighting freshwater fish, with a thick, muscular body built for holding in strong current.

freshwater
Common Carp

Common Carp

A large, hardy, bottom-feeding fish native to Eurasia and now found worldwide, recognizable by its stout body, barbels, and long dorsal fin, and the wild ancestor of ornamental koi.

freshwater
Carp

Carp

A heavy-bodied freshwater fish with large, coarse scales, two pairs of barbels near its mouth, and a highly adaptable, bottom-foraging lifestyle found across much of the world.

freshwater

Zebra 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
Targetfish

Targetfish

A silvery, deep-bodied fish marked with three or four bold, curving dark stripes running from head to tail, common in brackish estuaries across the Indo-Pacific.

brackish
Snapper

Snapper

A robust, reef-dwelling fish with a reddish-pink body and striking red eyes, common over rocky bottoms, reefs, and wrecks throughout the Gulf of Mexico and western Atlantic.

reef
Queen Angelfish

Queen Angelfish

The Queen Angelfish is a large, vividly colored Caribbean reef fish with a blue-green body, yellow-rimmed scales, and a distinctive blue-ringed crown spot on its forehead.

reef
Whale Shark

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
Silver Aba

Silver Aba

A tail-less, eel-shaped African fish that swims by rippling a long dorsal fin and generates a weak electric field to sense its surroundings.

freshwater