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.
Black Sea Bream
A deep-bodied porgy of the Mediterranean and Eastern Atlantic, notable for males that excavate and guard nest depressions on the seabed during spawning.
saltwater
Von Rio Tetra
A small, fiery-red tetra native to coastal rivers near Rio de Janeiro, notable for two dark shoulder spots and deep red hindquarters.
freshwaterTotoaba
A critically endangered giant drum endemic to the Gulf of California, notable as one of the largest members of the Sciaenidae family.
saltwater
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
Warsaw Grouper
A massive, deep-dwelling western Atlantic grouper with a dark brownish-red body, oversized head, and a second dorsal spine noticeably longer than the others.
deepseaBlack 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
Queenfish
A small, slender drum common in California bays and nearshore waters, notable for forming large, tightly packed schools near the surface.
saltwater
Colombian Tetra
A large, vividly rose-red characin native to northern Colombian rivers, notable for its bold coloration and confident schooling behavior.
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
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
Almaco Jack
A deep-bodied jack with a tall, strongly notched dorsal fin and elongated fin lobes, commonly found around tropical reefs and offshore structure.
reef
Tomcod
The Atlantic tomcod is a small, estuarine member of the cod family found along the northwestern Atlantic coast, notable for tolerating brackish and nearly fresh water unlike most of its relatives.
brackish
Short-snouted Seahorse
The short-snouted seahorse is a stocky, spiny-headed species found in coastal waters of the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic, distinguished from its long-snouted relative by a notably short, thick snout.
saltwater
Ling Cod
A large, elongated predator of the North Pacific coast known for its mottled camouflage and cavernous, tooth-filled mouth. Despite the name, it is not a true cod but a member of the greenling family.
saltwater
Pacific Blackdragon
An eel-like deep-sea dragonfish whose females are entirely jet-black with a long chin barbel, while the tiny, non-feeding males look almost nothing like them.
deepsea
Longtail Tuna
A coastal tuna of the Indo-West Pacific with a notably slender, elongated body and a long, low second dorsal fin, often found closer to shore than other tunas.
pelagic
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
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
Redear Sunfish
A deep-bodied sunfish named for the bright red-orange margin on its black ear flap, notable for its specialized diet of snails and other mollusks in warm southern lakes and ponds.
freshwater
Emperor Cichlid
The largest cichlid species in the world, the emperor cichlid grows to nearly a meter long in the deep waters of Lake Tanganyika and is notable for spawning only once before dying shortly after.
freshwater
Gulf Pipefish
The Gulf pipefish is a small, slender pipefish common in seagrass beds and estuaries around the Gulf of Mexico and southeastern United States, notable for tolerating salinities ranging from full seawater to nearly fresh water.
brackish