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.
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.
freshwater
Two-Banded Clownfish
An orange anemonefish with two broad white bars, the characteristic clownfish of the Red Sea and adjacent Gulf of Aden reefs, always found sheltering among host anemones.
reef
Blackspotted Topminnow
A slender killifish of Gulf Coastal Plain streams, marked by rows of dark spots along its sides rather than a solid stripe. It favors clear, vegetated streams from Texas to Alabama.
freshwater
Valentini Puffer
The Valentini Puffer is a small reef puffer marked by two bold black saddle patches on a white-and-tan body, a pattern also mimicked by an unrelated filefish.
reef
Crappie
A deep-bodied, silvery panfish found in North American lakes and slow rivers, marked by irregular dark blotches or vertical bars depending on species. The genus Pomoxis includes the Black Crappie and White Crappie.
freshwater
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.
deepsea
Australian Rainbowfish
A widespread, variably colored rainbowfish found across tropical Australian and southern New Guinea waterways, ranging from olive-silver to vivid blue and yellow forms.
freshwater
Porcupinefish
A spine-covered, inflatable reef fish found in warm seas worldwide; nocturnal and slow-moving, it shelters in reef crevices by day and forages for hard-shelled prey at night.
reef
Achilles Tang
A striking black surgeonfish with a bold orange-red teardrop marking near its tail and matching scalpel-like tail spine. It inhabits high-surf reef zones across the Pacific.
reef
Flagtail Prochilodus
The Flagtail Prochilodus is a schooling South American river fish named for its bold red-and-black striped tail fin, which resembles a flag.
freshwater
Clown Killifish
A tiny, torpedo-shaped killifish from West African rainforest streams, patterned with alternating black and cream bands and a fiery red-and-blue tail resembling a tiny rocket.
freshwater
Paddlefish
A large, ancient North American fish with a long paddle-shaped snout used to detect plankton, related to sturgeon rather than sharks despite its shark-like tail.
freshwater
Longsnout Seahorse
A slender, long-snouted seahorse native to the western Atlantic that anchors itself to soft corals and mangrove roots with its prehensile tail. It comes in a wide range of colors, from yellow and orange to red and black.
reef
Purple Tang
A vivid violet surgeonfish with a contrasting yellow tail, native to Red Sea coral reefs.
reef
Koi
Ornamental color varieties of the Amur carp, selectively bred in Japan for centuries into hundreds of red, white, black, and gold patterns kept in decorative ponds worldwide.
freshwater
Yellowtail Wrasse
A striking Indo-Pacific wrasse whose bright red spotted juveniles transform into green-blue adults with a yellow tail.
reef
Yellow Longnose Butterflyfish
A bright yellow Indo-Pacific butterflyfish with a very long tweezer-like snout and a black eyespot near the tail.
reef
Sohal Tang
A powerfully built surgeonfish endemic to the Red Sea and nearby Arabian waters, marked by bold blue and black striping and known for fiercely defending shallow reef flats.
reef
Butterfly Splitfin
A striking Mexican livebearer known for its black body, yellow-orange tail band, and unusual reproductive biology shared with other goodeids.
freshwater
Panda Corydoras
A small, pale armored catfish with bold black patches around the eyes and tail, resembling its namesake in miniature form.
freshwater
California Sheephead
A large sequential-hermaphrodite wrasse of California and Baja kelp forests, with males showing a striking black-and-red pattern and prominent canine teeth used to crush hard-shelled prey.
reef
Penguin Tetra
An Amazonian characin recognized by its bold black tail stripe and unusual head-up swimming posture resembling a penguin's stance.
freshwater
Steel-blue Killifish
A small, brightly colored West African killifish with a metallic blue body, red spotting, and an elongated lyre-shaped tail. It inhabits swamps and forest streams in Nigeria and Cameroon.
freshwater
Green Swordtail
The naturally colored, wild-type form of the swordtail, the green swordtail displays an olive-green body with a red-brown stripe and the species' signature elongated tail extension in males.
freshwater