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.
Brook Lamprey
The brook lamprey is a small, non-parasitic freshwater lamprey of Pacific Northwest streams that never feeds as an adult, spending most of its life buried as a filter-feeding larva.
freshwater
Conger Eel
The Conger Eel is the largest eel in European waters, a strictly marine species inhabiting rocky reefs and wrecks across the northeastern Atlantic and Mediterranean.
saltwater
Bib
The bib, or pouting, is a small, deep-bodied cod relative of the northeastern Atlantic, easily recognized by its coppery-bronze body marked with dark vertical bars.
saltwaterBlack Hagfish
The black hagfish is a jawless, deep-sea scavenger found on the muddy continental slope off the Pacific coast of North America, notable for its uniformly dark coloration.
deepsea
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.
saltwaterWitch Flounder
A slender, tongue-shaped deep-water North Atlantic flatfish with plain grayish-brown coloration, fine scales, and a preference for cold muddy shelf and slope bottoms.
deepsea
Sheepshead Minnow
A stocky, deep-bodied pupfish tolerant of extreme salinity swings, common in salt marshes and tidal creeks along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of North America.
brackish
Silver Carp
A large, filter-feeding East Asian carp famous for leaping high out of the water when startled by boat noise, and notorious as an invasive species in North American rivers.
freshwater
Silver Hake
The silver hake is a slim, bright-sided relative of true cod found along the northwestern Atlantic shelf, recognized by its sharp teeth, two dorsal fins, and lack of a chin barbel.
saltwater
Pacific Cod
A heavy-bodied, bottom-dwelling relative of the Atlantic Cod found across the cold North Pacific, recognized by its large head, chin barbel, and mottled brown coloring.
saltwater
Little Skate
A small, common skate of the northwest Atlantic continental shelf, widely used in biological research and frequently caught as bycatch in coastal trawls.
cartilaginous
Hogchoker
A small, tough-skinned estuarine sole tolerant of fresh to salt water, with a mottled brown crossbanded body, rounded outline, and no visible pectoral fins.
brackish
Eyestripe Surgeonfish
An Indo-Pacific tang with fine blue pencil-lines over a yellow-brown body and a distinctive yellow stripe through the eye; notably long-lived, reaching nearly 30 years.
reef
Chinese High-Fin Banded Shark
Despite its name, the Chinese High-Fin Banded Shark is not a shark at all but a large freshwater sucker native to China's Yangtze River basin, known for its tall sail-like dorsal fin.
freshwater
Cabezon
The cabezon is the largest sculpin of the North American Pacific coast, a heavily mottled, scaleless ambush predator that blends into rocky reef and kelp habitat.
saltwater
Arctic Char
A cold-adapted char of circumpolar northern waters, showing extremely variable coloration and body form across isolated lake and anadromous populations.
freshwater
Whitetip Reef Shark
A slender nocturnal reef shark marked by distinctive white-tipped fins, often seen resting motionless inside reef caves and under ledges by day across the Indo-Pacific.
reef
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
Sailfin Catfish
A large South American armored catfish with a tall sail-like dorsal fin, popular in aquariums and now a widespread invasive species in warm freshwater habitats worldwide.
freshwater
Rex Sole
A slender, deep-dwelling northeastern Pacific flatfish notable for unusually long pectoral fins and plain light brown coloration on cold continental shelf and slope bottoms.
deepsea
Rainbow Trout
A popular salmonid native to Pacific-drainage rivers of North America and Asia, known for its silvery body, dark spotting, and the broad pink-red stripe that gives the species its name.
freshwater
Inland Silverside
A small, slender silverside native to Gulf and Atlantic coastal waters, notable for tolerating a wide range of salinities from brackish estuaries to inland reservoirs.
brackish
Lacustrine Rainbowfish
A brilliant turquoise-blue rainbowfish endemic to Lake Kutubu in Papua New Guinea, now considered endangered due to pollution linked to nearby natural gas extraction.
freshwater
Gila Trout
The Gila trout is a rare golden-hued native trout restricted to a handful of remote headwater streams in New Mexico and Arizona, and remains one of North America's most range-limited trout species.
freshwater