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.
Tomtate
A small silvery grunt common over reefs and hard-bottom habitats of the western Atlantic, recognized by a dark blotch near the base of its tail fin.
reef
Oscar
A large, intelligent South American cichlid known for its bold personality, striking mottled coloration, and a dark false eyespot near the base of its tail.
freshwater
Bullhead Catfish
A hardy, whiskered bottom-dweller with a rounded tail and mottled brown skin, thriving in muddy, low-oxygen ponds and slow streams across North America.
freshwater
Blue Devil Damselfish
A small, intensely electric-blue damselfish common on shallow Indo-Pacific reef flats, with males developing an orange-tinted tail during breeding season.
reef
Atlantic Saury
A slender, silvery, beaked fish of the open North Atlantic, closely related to needlefish, recognized by its elongated jaws and a row of small finlets near the tail.
pelagic
Spotted Gar
A slender North American gar covered in dark spots from head to tail, often seen basking near the surface of quiet, weedy waters.
freshwater
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
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
Mola Mola
The heaviest bony fish in the world, an enormous, flattened, disc-shaped giant that appears to be missing a tail, often seen basking sideways at the ocean's surface.
pelagic
Neon Damselfish
A small, brilliant iridescent blue damselfish with a touch of yellow on the tail, commonly seen in loose groups over rubble and coral on Indo-Pacific reefs.
reef
Blue-spotted Stingray
A small, brilliantly patterned stingray common on Indo-Pacific coral reefs, instantly recognizable by its electric-blue spots and blue-striped tail.
reef
Sauger
A slender, olive-gold relative of the walleye, best known for the rows of black spots on its spiny dorsal fin and its love of murky river currents.
freshwater
Lined Surgeonfish
A boldly striped blue, black, and yellow tang that fiercely defends algal-turf patches on shallow, wave-exposed reef crests across the Indo-Pacific.
reef
Green Spotted Puffer
A small, popular aquarium puffer with a bright green, black-spotted back and white belly, native to brackish estuaries and mangrove creeks across Southeast Asia.
brackish
Giant Oceanic Manta Ray
The largest ray in the world, a black-and-white filter feeder with enormous triangular pectoral fins and distinctive cephalic lobes used to funnel plankton into its mouth.
cartilaginous
French Angelfish
A large Caribbean reef angelfish with a jet-black body edged in bright yellow on each scale, giving adults a shimmering, chain-mail-like appearance.
reef
Gold Dust Molly
A selectively bred molly variety combining a golden-yellow base color with fine black speckling, developed in the aquarium trade from wild Poecilia stock.
freshwater
Clown Tang
A vividly striped surgeonfish with alternating blue, black, and yellow horizontal lines, one of the most aggressively territorial herbivores on shallow Indo-Pacific reef crests.
reef
Banggai Cardinalfish
The Banggai Cardinalfish is a striking silver-and-black fish with long trailing fins and bold white spots, native to a tiny area of Indonesia and listed as Endangered in the wild.
reef
Tinfoil Barb
A large, fast-swimming barb with brilliant silver, mirror-like scales and orange-red fins, the tinfoil barb inhabits big Southeast Asian rivers and forms sizable shoals in open water.
freshwater
Cherry Barb
A small, slender freshwater fish whose males flush a deep cherry-red color, especially during breeding, while both sexes show a dark horizontal stripe running along the body.
freshwater
Yellow Boxfish
The Yellow Boxfish is a cube-shaped reef fish, bright yellow with black spots as a juvenile, that swims with slow, hovering movements thanks to its rigid armored body.
reef
Striped Bass
A large, silvery, hard-fighting bass marked with bold black stripes, native to the Atlantic coast and now widely established in freshwater reservoirs across North America.
brackish
Threadfin Butterflyfish
A widespread Indo-Pacific butterflyfish identified by a pale yellow body, dark diagonal stripes, a black eye-band, and a distinctive trailing filament on the rear dorsal fin.
reef