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.
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
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
Sparkling Gourami
A tiny, jewel-like Southeast Asian gourami covered in iridescent blue-green spangling and reddish stripes, small enough to be one of the smallest gouramis kept in aquariums.
freshwater
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
Hardyhead Silverside
A robust, silvery schooling fish common in shallow lagoons and reef flats across the Indo-Pacific, identified by its broad head and prominent silver midline stripe.
saltwater
Denison Barb
A striking torpedo-shaped barb endemic to fast hill streams of India's Western Ghats, known for its bold red-black-yellow stripe and endangered status.
freshwater
Skipjack Tuna
A small, fast-swimming tuna with bold dark stripes along its lower body, forming enormous schools across warm oceans and supporting the world's largest tuna fishery.
pelagic
Snakeskin Gourami
A large, elongated Southeast Asian gourami named for the diagonal, snakeskin-like striping pattern across its olive-brown flanks, widely distributed through floodplain and canal habitats.
freshwater
Rainbow Runner
A slender, torpedo-bodied jack with two vivid blue-green stripes, found roaming warm oceans worldwide, often trailing larger pelagic fish like tuna and sharks.
pelagic
Pearl Gourami
A peaceful Southeast Asian labyrinth fish prized for its lace-like pearly pattern and a black stripe running from snout to tail, with males showing an orange throat and breast.
freshwater
Murray River Rainbowfish
A slender, schooling rainbowfish native to Australia's Murray-Darling river system, displaying subtle pink-red stripes and yellow-tinted fins along its silvery-blue body.
freshwater
Diamond Watchman Goby
A pearly white sleeper goby with pale yellow stripes and sky-blue head markings that spends its day sifting mouthfuls of sand for hidden invertebrates near its burrow.
reef
Targetfish
A silvery, deep-bodied fish marked with three or four bold, curving dark stripes running from head to tail, common in brackish estuaries across the Indo-Pacific.
brackish
Titan Triggerfish
The Titan Triggerfish is the largest triggerfish species, recognized by its olive-yellow body, pale moustache stripe, and famously territorial nest-guarding behavior on Indo-Pacific reefs.
reef
Rainbow Trout
A popular salmonid native to Pacific-drainage rivers of North America and Asia, known for its silvery body, dark spotting, and the broad pink-red stripe that gives the species its name.
freshwater
French Grunt
The French grunt is a small, abundant reef fish of the Caribbean and western Atlantic, marked by narrow yellow stripes over a silvery-white body and known for forming dense daytime schools.
reef
Freshwater Angelfish
An iconic Amazonian aquarium fish with a tall, disc-shaped, laterally compressed body, long trailing fins, and bold vertical stripes that help it blend among submerged roots and plants.
freshwater
Cleaner Wrasse
The Cleaner Wrasse is a slender fish with a bold black horizontal stripe and blue body, famous for removing parasites and dead tissue from other reef fish at dedicated cleaning stations.
reef
Golden Trout
One of the most brilliantly colored freshwater fish in North America, native to a small area of high-elevation streams in California's Sierra Nevada, marked with vivid golden-orange flanks and crimson stripes.
freshwater
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
Eyestripe Surgeonfish
An Indo-Pacific tang with fine blue pencil-lines over a yellow-brown body and a distinctive yellow stripe through the eye; notably long-lived, reaching nearly 30 years.
reef
Croaking Gourami
A small Southeast Asian gourami capable of producing an audible croaking sound using modified pectoral fin muscles, marked with iridescent blue-green stripes and spots along a brownish body.
freshwater
Peacock Wrasse
A colorful Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic wrasse whose males display vivid green-blue bodies with orange spots and blue facial stripes, commonly seen darting among rocky reefs and seagrass beds.
saltwater
Neon Tetra
A tiny schooling characin from Amazonian blackwater streams, instantly recognized by its glowing blue-green stripe and bright red lower body, one of the most popular aquarium fish ever kept.
freshwater