Fish Identifier

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.

all freshwater saltwater reef pelagic cartilaginous deepsea brackish

Freshwater Butterflyfish

Freshwater Butterflyfish

The freshwater butterflyfish is a surface-dwelling African fish with huge wing-like pectoral fins that let it glide above the water to snatch insects, giving it its butterfly-like name.

Giant Freshwater Stingray

Giant Freshwater Stingray

One of the largest freshwater fish on Earth, a massive river-dwelling stingray capable of exceeding 2 meters across and hundreds of kilograms.

Anglerfish

A bizarre deep-sea predator that lures prey with a bioluminescent lure atop its head, adapted to life in total darkness at crushing ocean depths.

Whipnose Anglerfish

A deep-sea anglerfish with an extraordinarily long, whip-like fishing rod, often exceeding its own body length, tipped with a luminous lure trailed out in the darkness to draw in curious prey.

American Eel

The American Eel spends most of its life in North American rivers and estuaries before migrating once to the Sargasso Sea to spawn and die.

Japanese Eel

The Japanese Eel is an East Asian catadromous fish that migrates from freshwater rivers to offshore Pacific spawning grounds, and is now classified as Endangered.

Burbot

The burbot is the only fully freshwater member of the cod family, an eel-shaped, mottled predator found in cold lakes and rivers across the Northern Hemisphere.

Lake Sturgeon

The lake sturgeon is a large, armored, long-lived freshwater fish native to the Great Lakes and Mississippi basin, recognizable by its bony scute rows and shovel-shaped snout.

Largetooth Sawfish

Largetooth Sawfish

One of the largest sawfish species, uniquely able to travel far up freshwater rivers, now Critically Endangered and eliminated from most of its former circumtropical range.

Silver Aba

A tail-less, eel-shaped African fish that swims by rippling a long dorsal fin and generates a weak electric field to sense its surroundings.

Alligator Gar

A massive, armor-scaled freshwater fish with a broad alligator-like snout lined with two rows of sharp teeth, among the largest freshwater fish in North America.

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.

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.

Iridescent Shark

Iridescent Shark

Despite its name, this is a large freshwater catfish, not a shark, recognized in juveniles by an iridescent sheen and dark stripes that fade with age.

Electric Catfish

Electric Catfish

An African freshwater catfish capable of generating strong electric discharges from specialized body tissue used for hunting and defense.

Goldfish

A hardy freshwater fish domesticated from the wild Prussian carp, prized worldwide as an ornamental pond and aquarium species in many color forms.

Common Roach

A widespread European freshwater fish with a silvery body and distinctive red-orange fins, forming large shoals in slow rivers, lakes, and canals.

Betta

A small, vividly colored Southeast Asian freshwater fish famed for its flowing fins and the intense territorial aggression of males toward rivals.

Dwarf Pufferfish

Dwarf Pufferfish

The Dwarf Pufferfish is one of the world's smallest puffers, a freshwater species from southern India prized for its tiny size and expressive, alert behavior.

Arapaima

One of the largest freshwater fish in the world, this massive Amazonian species has thick armor-like scales and must surface periodically to breathe air.

Ember Tetra

A tiny, glowing orange-red tetra that shoals in large numbers and is among the smallest characins kept in freshwater aquaria.

Swordtail

Named for the elongated, sword-like extension on the male's tail fin, this energetic livebearer from Mexico and Central America is a long-standing favorite in freshwater aquariums.

Mbu Pufferfish

The Mbu Pufferfish is the largest freshwater pufferfish species, native to Central Africa's Congo River system and known for its maze-like yellow body markings.

Arowana

The arowana is a large, ancient freshwater fish of the Amazon basin, genus Osteoglossum, known for its upturned mouth, long fins, and ability to leap for surface prey.