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.

Ling

Ling

The ling is a long, eel-shaped member of the cod family found on deep rocky reefs of the northeastern Atlantic, distinguished by its elongated fins and single chin barbel.

saltwater
Gilthead Bream

Gilthead Bream

A deep-bodied Mediterranean and Eastern Atlantic sparid named for the golden band across its forehead. A euryhaline species that moves between coastal reefs and brackish lagoons.

saltwater
Coral Beauty Angelfish

Coral Beauty Angelfish

The Coral Beauty Angelfish is a small dwarf angelfish with a deep purple-blue body and orange-yellow scale highlights, widely distributed across Indo-Pacific reefs.

reef
Cinnamon Clownfish

Cinnamon Clownfish

A deep reddish-orange clownfish with dark shading across the body and a single white head bar, living among sea anemones on coral reefs of the western Pacific.

reef
Clown Goby

Clown Goby

A tiny, bright yellow goby that lives permanently nestled among the branches of Acropora corals on Indo-Pacific reefs, rarely straying from its host colony.

reef
Blue Rockfish

Blue Rockfish

A schooling rockfish with dark blue-gray coloring, commonly seen in large numbers around kelp forests and rocky reefs along the Pacific coast of North America.

saltwater
Black Rockfish

Black Rockfish

A dark, deep-bodied schooling rockfish common over rocky reefs and kelp forests along the Pacific coast, often seen in large surface-oriented aggregations.

saltwater
Yellowtail Rockfish

Yellowtail Rockfish

A slender, olive-brown Pacific rockfish with yellow-tinted fins that schools in large midwater aggregations over rocky reefs and open water along the North American coast.

saltwater
Wolf Eel

Wolf Eel

The Wolf Eel is a large, spotted, eel-shaped fish of North Pacific rocky reefs that forms long-term pairs and cooperatively guards its eggs in a shared den.

saltwater

Spotted Moray

A pale, leopard-patterned eel of Caribbean and western Atlantic reefs, its cream body densely covered in dark brown blotches that give it a mottled, sponge-like appearance.

reef
Pacific Red Snapper

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
Orangeshoulder Tang

Orangeshoulder Tang

A gray-bodied surgeonfish marked by a bold orange patch behind the gill cover, often seen grazing sandy rubble zones adjacent to Indo-Pacific coral reefs.

reef
Quillback Rockfish

Quillback Rockfish

A mottled brown and orange rockfish with a tall, dark-blotched spiny dorsal fin that gives it a distinctive quill-like silhouette, commonly found around rocky reefs and kelp.

saltwater
Orangespine Unicornfish

Orangespine Unicornfish

A hornless unicornfish marked by a black eye mask, yellow dorsal stripe, and vivid orange blade-like spines at the tail base; common on shallow Indo-Pacific reefs.

reef
Goldsinny Wrasse

Goldsinny Wrasse

A small reddish-brown wrasse marked by a black tail-base spot, the Goldsinny Wrasse patrols rocky Atlantic reefs and is known for picking parasites off other fish.

saltwater
Fourstripe Damselfish

Fourstripe Damselfish

A white damselfish marked with three bold black bars plus a black tail, forming a four-banded pattern as it hovers around branching coral on Indo-Pacific reefs.

reef
Whitespotted Moray

Whitespotted Moray

A brown moray eel densely covered in small, evenly spaced white spots, commonly seen with its head poking from crevices on shallow Indo-Pacific coral reefs.

reef
Talbot's Damselfish

Talbot's Damselfish

A small damselfish with a yellow head, a pale lavender-grey body, and a distinctive black spot on the rear dorsal fin, found sheltering among branching coral on western Pacific reefs.

reef
Sheepshead Bream

Sheepshead Bream

The sheepshead bream, or white seabream, is a silvery sparid marked by dark vertical bars and a black tail-base spot, common over rocky reefs and seagrass in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic.

reef
Malabar Grouper

Malabar Grouper

The Malabar grouper is a large, olive-grey Indo-Pacific grouper covered in dark blotches and small pale spots, found across coastal reefs, estuaries, and mangrove-lined coasts.

reef
Black Sea Bass

Black Sea Bass

A stocky, dark-bodied grouper relative common on rocky reefs and wrecks along the temperate western Atlantic coast, easily recognized by its high arched back and blunt head.

reef
Yellow Seahorse

Yellow Seahorse

A widespread and highly variable Indo-Pacific seahorse, commonly seen in bright yellow though also occurring in black, orange, or mottled brown, found from mangrove estuaries to coral reefs.

reef
Honeycomb Moray

Honeycomb Moray

One of the largest and most strikingly marked moray eels, its pale body covered in bold black honeycomb-shaped blotches makes it instantly recognizable across Indo-Pacific reefs.

reef
Cornetfish

Cornetfish

An extremely elongated, needle-thin fish with a whip-like tail filament, the Cornetfish hovers near reefs and seagrass, using its long tubular snout to snap up small fish.

reef