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.
Blue Ring Angelfish
An Indo-Pacific angelfish named for the vivid blue ring behind its head, with adults displaying a yellow-brown body crossed by curving electric-blue lines.
reef
European Anchovy
A slender, small-bodied schooling fish with a distinctive pointed snout and underslung mouth, found in enormous shoals along European and North African coasts and throughout the Mediterranean.
pelagic
Paddlefish
A large, ancient North American fish with a long paddle-shaped snout used to detect plankton, related to sturgeon rather than sharks despite its shark-like tail.
freshwater
Gambusia
A small, hardy North American livebearer famous for its voracious appetite for mosquito larvae, widely introduced worldwide for mosquito control with significant ecological consequences.
freshwater
Eagle Ray
A diamond-shaped ray with a distinctive protruding duck-like snout, often seen gliding gracefully near the seafloor in coastal waters of the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean.
cartilaginous
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
Yellow Watchman Goby
A bright yellow burrowing goby that forms a cooperative partnership with pistol shrimp, sharing a burrow while acting as lookout for the nearly blind shrimp.
reef
Viperfish
The viperfish is a deep-sea predator famous for its oversized, needle-like fangs and a light-tipped dorsal fin ray used as a lure in the dark mesopelagic zone.
deepsea
Steephead Parrotfish
A large Indo-Pacific parrotfish named for its abruptly steep, blunt forehead, typically seen grazing algae and reef rock along outer reef slopes in small groups.
reef
Speckled Hind
A reddish-brown to blackish western Atlantic grouper densely covered in small pale blue-white spots, giving rise to its nickname the "strawberry grouper."
deepsea
Shortfin Molly
A hardy, adaptable livebearer native to Mexico and Central America, prized in the aquarium trade for its tolerance of varied water chemistry.
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
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
Randall's Goby
A small, striped shrimp goby that shares a burrow with a pistol shrimp, hovering nearby to pick zooplankton from the water column while watching for danger.
reef
Redeye Bass
A small, stream-dwelling black bass named for its bright red eyes, native to rocky, fast-flowing rivers of the southeastern Appalachian foothills.
freshwater
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
Rosy Loach
The Rosy Loach is a tiny, delicately colored nano loach from Myanmar's slow-moving, vegetated streams and pools, prized for its diminutive size and rosy-pink hues.
freshwater
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.
cartilaginousRock Gunnel
A slender, eel-like intertidal fish of the North Atlantic, the Rock Gunnel hides under rocks and seaweed and is marked by a row of pale-ringed spots along its dorsal fin.
saltwater
Prickly Sculpin
A large freshwater sculpin of Pacific coast rivers and lakes, named for the tiny prickle-like scales scattered along its sides, and among the largest members of its genus.
freshwater
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
Pelagic Stingray
A uniquely oceanic stingray that never touches the seabed, drifting through warm and temperate seas worldwide while feeding on squid and small fish.
pelagic
Peacock Grouper
The peacock grouper is a dark-bodied reef predator patterned with bright blue spots and pale bars, native to the Indo-Pacific and introduced to Hawaiian waters.
reef