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.
White Perch
A silvery, deep-bodied temperate bass rather than a true perch, common in brackish estuaries and coastal rivers of eastern North America.
brackish
Black Rockfish
A dark, deep-bodied schooling rockfish common over rocky reefs and kelp forests along the Pacific coast, often seen in large surface-oriented aggregations.
saltwaterTwo-spot Red Snapper
The two-spot red snapper, or bohar snapper, is a large, deep red Indo-Pacific reef predator, sometimes showing two pale saddle spots on the back, and an important predator on coral reef slopes.
reef
Megrim
A slender, left-eyed flatfish of the Northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean, valued commercially and recognizable by its thin, elongated body and large mouth.
saltwater
Northern Anchovy
A small, slender schooling fish with a pointed snout and large mouth, abundant along the Pacific coast of North America, where it forms a key part of the California Current forage base.
pelagic
Grouper
A heavy-bodied reef predator with a large mouth and mottled camouflage pattern, known for lying in wait near reef structure before ambushing fish and crustaceans.
reef
Green Sunfish
A hardy, aggressive small sunfish with a large mouth and dark greenish-blue body marked with yellow-green flecking, tolerant of poor water conditions where few other sunfish can survive.
freshwater
Spanish Grunt
The Spanish grunt is a deep-bodied, silvery-yellow reef grunt of the western Atlantic and Caribbean, marked by dark scale rows and a large mouth used to crush hard-shelled prey.
reef
Royal Gramma
The Royal Gramma is a small Caribbean reef fish with a sharp two-tone body: violet-purple in front, golden yellow behind. It shelters upside down in caves and crevices along steep reef walls.
reef
Bicolor Anthias
A small Indo-Pacific reef fish sharply divided in color, with a violet-purple front half and a golden-yellow rear half, forming loose groups above reef structure.
reef
Squarespot Anthias
A schooling Indo-Pacific anthias; territorial males display a bold rectangular magenta-purple patch on an orange body, while females stay uniformly peach-colored.
reef
Lyretail Anthias
The lyretail anthias is a small, vividly orange-pink reef fish that forms large, colorful schools over coral drop-offs, with males sporting an elongated lyre-shaped tail.
reefAnthias
A small, brightly colored basslet that forms large shimmering schools over reef drop-offs, feeding on drifting plankton.
reef
Slippery Dick
A common small western-Atlantic wrasse with two dark lateral stripes and a small dark spot at the tail base.
reef
Midas Blenny
An elongated, brightly colored blenny that ranges from golden-yellow to blue-violet and often mimics the appearance and swimming style of similarly colored basslets. It hovers near reef crevices along drop-offs.
reef
Naso Tang
A large surgeonfish with bright orange lips and a yellow tail-base marking, grazing algae along Indo-Pacific reef slopes.
reef
Spotfin Croaker
A robust surf-zone drum from Southern California and Baja, easily identified by a bold black spot at the base of each pectoral fin.
saltwater
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
Red-eye Tetra
A hardy, wide-ranging South American characin identified by its striking red iris band and bold black-and-white marked tail base.
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
Corkwing Wrasse
A small, colorful European wrasse identified by a dark comma-shaped spot behind the eye and a dark blotch on the tail base.
saltwater
Head and Tail Light Tetra
An Amazon and Guiana river characin named for its glowing metallic eye and tail-base spots, resembling a pair of tiny headlights.
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
Keeltail Needlefish
A slender needlefish easily identified by the raised keel-like ridge on either side of its tail base, found cruising the surface of warm coastal waters worldwide.
saltwater