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

Tadpole 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.

Red Hake

Red hake is a slender, tapering groundfish of the western North Atlantic shelf, identified by its reddish-brown color, two dorsal fins, and long thread-like pelvic fin filaments.

Common Lumpsucker

Common Lumpsucker

Shaped like a rounded ball with a sucker disc instead of pelvic fins, the Common Lumpsucker drifts through cold North Atlantic waters before moving inshore to spawn on rocky shores.

Round Goby

A bottom-dwelling goby native to the Black and Caspian Sea basins, now a widespread invasive species in the Great Lakes and parts of Europe, recognized by its fused pelvic fins and dark spot on the front dorsal fin.

Knight Goby

A small, boldly patterned goby from Southeast Asian estuaries, pale gray-white with scattered black spots and blotches along its slender body. It perches on the bottom, propped on its fused pelvic fins, watching for small prey.

Widow Rockfish

A bronze-brown, large-eyed rockfish that forms dense midwater schools over the outer continental shelf and was once the target of one of the Pacific coast's largest groundfish fisheries.

Rosy Rockfish

A small, brightly colored rockfish with rose-pink coloring and dark saddle blotches, found on rocky reefs along the California coast.

Northern Kingfish

A slender surf-dwelling drum of the Atlantic coast, marked by bold dark diagonal bars and a distinctive elongated dorsal fin ray.

California Corbina

California Corbina

A prized surf-zone drum of the California coast, recognized by its uniform silvery body, sloping snout, and single chin barbel.

Florida Pompano

Florida Pompano

A deep-bodied, silvery fish with a forked tail and yellow-tinged fins, common in sandy surf zones along the western Atlantic coast.

Vermilion Rockfish

Vermilion Rockfish

A vivid orange-red rockfish of Pacific coast reefs, often called 'red snapper' informally by anglers despite being unrelated to true snappers.

Senorita

A slender, golden-brown kelp forest wrasse of the California coast known for its cleaning behavior, picking parasites off larger fish such as sheephead.

Round Stingray

A small, round-bodied stingray common in shallow sandy surf zones along the Pacific coast, notable for large seasonal aggregations in warm bays.

European Sea Bass

European Sea Bass

The European sea bass is a sleek, silvery predator common along European and North African coasts, prized by anglers as a hard-fighting sport fish.

Horn Shark

A small, harmless bottom shark with heavy brow ridges and two sharp dorsal spines, common along the California coast.

Rock Goby

A small, mottled goby common in rocky tide pools along European and North African coasts, easily spotted darting between rocks at low tide.

Dragon Goby

The Dragon Goby is a long, eel-like fish with a violet sheen and a large upturned mouth, found burrowing in muddy estuaries along the Americas' Atlantic coast.

White Seabass

The White Seabass is a large Pacific coast drum with a bluish-bronze back and silvery sides, closely associated with California's kelp forests.

Silver Perch

The Silver Perch is a small, bright silvery sciaenid common in seagrass and oyster reef habitats along the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf coasts.

Gulf Flounder

A left-eyed flatfish common along the Gulf of Mexico and southeastern Atlantic coast, marked by three distinctive eyespots arranged in a triangle.

Tautog

A large, robust, dark-mottled wrasse tied closely to rocky reefs and wrecks along the western Atlantic coast, known for its powerful shellfish-crushing jaws.

Striped Bass

A large, silvery, hard-fighting bass marked with bold black stripes, native to the Atlantic coast and now widely established in freshwater reservoirs across North America.

Colombian Shark Catfish

Colombian Shark Catfish

A sleek, silver, shark-shaped catfish with a tall dorsal fin and long barbels, native to brackish river mouths along the Pacific coast of Central and South America.

Blue Rockfish

A schooling rockfish with dark blue-gray coloring, commonly seen in large numbers around kelp forests and rocky reefs along the Pacific coast of North America.