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.
Huchen
The huchen, or Danube salmon, is Europe's largest freshwater salmonid, a powerful river predator native to the Danube basin that has become increasingly rare due to damming and habitat fragmentation.
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
French Grunt
The French grunt is a small, abundant reef fish of the Caribbean and western Atlantic, marked by narrow yellow stripes over a silvery-white body and known for forming dense daytime schools.
reef
Fingerfish
Another common name for the disc-shaped Mono, called Fingerfish for its thin, laterally compressed body. It schools in Indo-Pacific estuaries and coastal waters, flashing bright silver as it moves.
brackish
European Brook Lamprey
The European brook lamprey is a small, non-parasitic freshwater lamprey found across Europe, closely related to the river lamprey but spending its entire life cycle in streams and never feeding as an adult.
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
Chocolate Gourami
A small, sensitive Southeast Asian blackwater specialist with a rich chocolate-brown body crossed by pale cream bands, notable as one of the few gouramis that broods its eggs in the mouth.
freshwater
Brown Trout
A golden-brown salmonid native to Europe and western Asia, marked by dark and reddish spots along its body, now widely introduced across the globe. It favors cool, clear rivers, streams, and lakes.
freshwater
Bluestripe Pipefish
The bluestripe pipefish is a tiny reef pipefish with a bright blue lateral stripe running along a tan or orange body, often seen hovering near crevices where it also cleans parasites from larger fish.
reef
Bocaccio
A large, streamlined rockfish with a prominent lower jaw and reddish-brown to olive coloring, once heavily depleted along the Pacific coast and now the focus of long-term rebuilding efforts.
saltwater
Blackwing Flyingfish
A stocky, wide-ranging flyingfish named for its large dusky-black pectoral wings, found gliding above open ocean surface waters across much of the world's warm and temperate seas.
pelagic
Arctic Lamprey
The Arctic lamprey is a jawless, circumpolar species found across Arctic and sub-Arctic rivers and coastal waters of North America and Asia, recognized by its sucker mouth and slender eel-like body.
brackish
American Shad
The largest member of the herring family in North America, this deep-bodied, silvery, anadromous fish spends most of its life at sea before migrating up coastal rivers each spring to spawn.
brackish
African Pompano
A deep-bodied jack whose juveniles trail extraordinarily long fin filaments while drifting near floating debris, maturing into steep-headed adults over deep reefs and wrecks.
pelagic
American Brook Lamprey
The American brook lamprey is a small, non-parasitic freshwater lamprey found in clean streams across eastern North America, closely related to the Arctic lamprey but never feeding once it reaches adulthood.
freshwaterZebra Seahorse
A small, boldly striped seahorse endemic to northern Australian waters, patterned with fine dark bands that give it a distinctly zebra-like appearance.
reef
Waspfish
A camouflaged, spiny bottom-dweller with fan-like pectoral fins and a mottled reddish-brown pattern, resting on sand or rubble near reefs across the Indo-Pacific.
saltwaterTadpole Cod
The tadpole cod is a tiny, translucent Gadiform fish named for its tadpole-like shape, found in warm surface waters worldwide and distinguished by its thread-like forward pelvic fins.
pelagic
Silver Scat
A disc-shaped, silvery fish marked with dark vertical bars, found schooling in brackish estuaries and mangroves across the Indo-Pacific and northern Australia.
brackish
Smalltooth Sawfish
A Critically Endangered ray-relative with a long, tooth-lined saw-like snout, once common in warm western Atlantic coastal waters but now greatly reduced in range.
cartilaginousRibbon Halfbeak
An extraordinarily thin, ribbon-shaped halfbeak of the open ocean, with a long needle-like lower jaw and greatly elongated fins that let it skitter and glide across the surface.
pelagic
Plains Killifish
A slender, sand-colored killifish adapted to the wide, shallow, shifting-sand rivers of the North American Great Plains, marked with narrow dark vertical bars.
freshwater
Porkfish
A bright yellow Caribbean grunt marked by two bold black diagonal stripes across the head, forming large schools that shelter near reef structure by day.
reef
Platy
A small, compact livebearer native to Mexico and Central America, the platy is prized for its bright colors, peaceful nature, and ease of breeding in home aquariums.
freshwater