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.
Silver Tip Tetra
A bronze-bodied Brazilian characin notable for lacking an adipose fin and for its bright white-tipped fins, active in fast-moving shoals.
freshwater
Frontosa
A striking striped cichlid from Lake Tanganyika, notable for the bulging cranial hump adult males develop above their eyes.
freshwater
Dog Salmon Herring
Despite the name, this is the chum salmon, nicknamed 'dog salmon' for its prominent canine-like spawning teeth — a true Pacific salmon, not a herring.
saltwater
White Perch
A silvery, deep-bodied temperate bass rather than a true perch, common in brackish estuaries and coastal rivers of eastern North America.
brackish
Sebae Clownfish
A dark brown clownfish with a bold yellow tail and two white body bars, native to reefs of the northern Indian Ocean and closely tied to the sebae sea anemone.
reef
Rock Goby
A small, mottled goby common in rocky tide pools along European and North African coasts, easily spotted darting between rocks at low tide.
saltwater
Dusky Shark
A large, robust requiem shark found along continental coastlines worldwide, notable for its slow growth and long-distance migrations.
saltwater
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
Sea Raven
A warty, spiny-headed sculpin of the northwestern Atlantic shelf, the Sea Raven can inflate its body with air or water as a defense when disturbed.
saltwater
Queenfish
A small, slender drum common in California bays and nearshore waters, notable for forming large, tightly packed schools near the surface.
saltwater
Common Skate
One of the largest skates in the world, now Critically Endangered after severe historical overfishing across its North Atlantic range.
cartilaginous
Colombian Tetra
A large, vividly rose-red characin native to northern Colombian rivers, notable for its bold coloration and confident schooling behavior.
freshwater
American Plaice
A right-eyed flounder of the cold North Atlantic, identifiable by its rough scales, curved lateral line, and reddish-brown upper body.
saltwater
Atlantic Halibut
The Atlantic halibut is the largest flatfish species, a right-eyed flounder with a diamond-shaped body found on cold seabeds of the North Atlantic.
saltwater
Sand Goby
A small, sand-colored goby common on shallow sandy seabeds and estuaries around northern Europe, distinguished by a dark spot at the base of its first dorsal fin.
brackish
Rock Bass
A robust, bronze-colored sunfish relative with striking red eyes, often found around rocky cover in clear streams and lakes of eastern and central North America.
freshwater
Rock Cook
A tiny olive-brown wrasse of northeastern Atlantic kelp reefs, the Rock Cook forages among rocks and crevices and can change sex during its lifetime.
saltwater
Round Stingray
A small, round-bodied stingray common in shallow sandy surf zones along the Pacific coast, notable for large seasonal aggregations in warm bays.
cartilaginous
Pink Salmon
The smallest and most abundant Pacific salmon, notable for its strict two-year life cycle and the pronounced dorsal hump males develop when spawning.
freshwater
Montezuma Swordtail
A Mexican livebearer notable for the male's exceptionally long, trailing sword-shaped tail extension, among the longest relative to body size of any swordtail.
freshwater
Greenland Halibut
A cold-water, deep-sea North Atlantic and Arctic flatfish with a dark body on both sides, a large toothy mouth, and a less flattened posture than typical flounders.
deepsea
Iridescent Shark
Despite its name, this is a large freshwater catfish, not a shark, recognized in juveniles by an iridescent sheen and dark stripes that fade with age.
freshwater
Great Sculpin
One of the largest sculpin species, with a heavily armored, spiny head and mottled brown body, found along rocky and muddy bottoms of the cold North Pacific.
saltwater
European Flounder
The European flounder is a right-eyed flatfish notable for its unusual tolerance of low salinity, regularly venturing far up rivers and estuaries.
brackish