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.
China Rockfish
Easily recognized by a bold yellow stripe running down its black body, the China rockfish is a small, secretive reef dweller of the northeastern Pacific.
saltwater
Blue Tang
A vivid royal-blue reef fish with a black palette-shaped marking and a bright yellow tail, popularized worldwide after appearing in animated film.
reef
Snapper
A robust, reef-dwelling fish with a reddish-pink body and striking red eyes, common over rocky bottoms, reefs, and wrecks throughout the Gulf of Mexico and western Atlantic.
reef
Schoolmaster Snapper
The schoolmaster snapper is a yellow-tinged reef snapper of the western Atlantic, recognized by faint pale bars and a blue line beneath the eye, common around reefs, mangroves, and seagrass.
reef
Pajama Cardinalfish
A small, egg-shaped reef fish with a yellow-striped head and red-spotted rear body, resembling patterned sleepwear.
reef
Moorish Idol
An unmistakable disc-shaped reef fish with bold black-white-yellow bands and a dramatically long trailing dorsal fin.
reef
Blue-spotted Shark
A small, slender nocturnal reef shark covered in vivid blue spots and dark saddle bands, popular in home aquariums.
reef
Stoplight Parrotfish
A common Caribbean reef fish whose terminal-phase males show brilliant green bodies with a distinctive yellow spot at the tail base resembling a stoplight.
reef
Queen Parrotfish
A blue-green Caribbean parrotfish with a bold yellow band across the snout, commonly seen grazing algae along reef slopes and flats throughout the region.
reef
Lined Surgeonfish
A boldly striped blue, black, and yellow tang that fiercely defends algal-turf patches on shallow, wave-exposed reef crests across the Indo-Pacific.
reef
Giant Moray
The Giant Moray is the largest moray eel species, a densely spotted Indo-Pacific reef predator that shelters in crevices by day and hunts fish and invertebrates at night.
reef
French Angelfish
A large Caribbean reef angelfish with a jet-black body edged in bright yellow on each scale, giving adults a shimmering, chain-mail-like appearance.
reef
Firefish Goby
A slender white-and-orange reef fish with a tall, flag-like first dorsal fin, often seen hovering near its burrow on sandy slopes.
reef
Coral Hind
A vivid orange-red Indo-Pacific grouper scattered with pale iridescent-blue spots, commonly seen resting near coral heads and reef ledges.
reef
Clown Tang
A vividly striped surgeonfish with alternating blue, black, and yellow horizontal lines, one of the most aggressively territorial herbivores on shallow Indo-Pacific reef crests.
reef
Blue Devil Damselfish
A small, intensely electric-blue damselfish common on shallow Indo-Pacific reef flats, with males developing an orange-tinted tail during breeding season.
reef
Bicolor Damselfish
A small reef fish sharply split into a dark front half and a pale rear half, common on Caribbean and western Atlantic coral reefs where it defends algae-covered territories.
reef
Bluefin Trevally
A vividly colored reef jack covered in electric-blue spots, with matching blue fins, patrolling coral reefs across the Indo-Pacific.
reef
White Grunt
A stout, silvery reef fish with a bright orange-red mouth lining, known for the grinding sound it makes with its pharyngeal teeth.
reef
Niger Triggerfish
A deep blue-green triggerfish with reddish teeth and a trailing crescent tail, often seen feeding on plankton above reef slopes.
reef
Naso Tang
A large surgeonfish with bright orange lips and a yellow tail-base marking, grazing algae along Indo-Pacific reef slopes.
reef
Bicolor Angelfish
A vivid dwarf angelfish split sharply into a bright yellow front half and deep blue rear half, a favorite of reef aquarists.
reef
Tiger Grouper
The tiger grouper is a slender reef grouper of the tropical western Atlantic marked with diagonal dark bars on a pale to reddish-brown body, resembling tiger-like striping.
reef
Sixline Soapfish
A dark brown-black Indo-Pacific reef fish marked with six pale horizontal stripes, known for secreting a bitter, toxic skin mucus as a defense mechanism.
reef