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.
Blue Marlin
A massive, cobalt-blue billfish with a long spear-like bill, the Blue Marlin is one of the fastest and largest predators of the open tropical ocean.
pelagic
Banded Gourami
A hardy South Asian labyrinth fish known for its diagonal orange-blue stripes and ability to gulp air in oxygen-poor water.
freshwater
Atlantic Bonito
A streamlined, fast-swimming relative of tuna and mackerel, marked by dark oblique stripes running across its steel-blue back.
pelagic
Auriga Butterflyfish
A very common Indo-Pacific butterflyfish with cross-hatched white body, yellow rear, and often a trailing dorsal filament.
reef
Slippery Dick
A common small western-Atlantic wrasse with two dark lateral stripes and a small dark spot at the tail base.
reef
Yellowfin Tuna
A sleek, fast-swimming tuna named for its long, bright yellow dorsal and anal fins, found in tropical and subtropical oceans worldwide.
pelagic
Walking Catfish
A hardy Southeast Asian catfish capable of breathing air and moving across land between bodies of water using its pectoral spines.
freshwaterWhite Marlin
A slender, fast-swimming billfish of the tropical and temperate Atlantic, known for its rounded fins and vivid blue-white coloration.
pelagicTwo-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
Twinspot Wrasse
A large Indo-Pacific wrasse; juveniles are white with two red-and-black spots, while old males become bulky and greenish with a forehead hump.
reef
White Hake
White hake is a large, elongated cod relative of the western North Atlantic shelf and slope, larger and grayer than red hake, with long pelvic fin filaments.
saltwater
Texas Cichlid
The only cichlid native to the United States, this pearly, turquoise-spotted fish thrives in the rivers of Texas and northeastern Mexico.
freshwater
Tomtate
A small silvery grunt common over reefs and hard-bottom habitats of the western Atlantic, recognized by a dark blotch near the base of its tail fin.
reef
Staghorn Sculpin
A common bottom-dwelling sculpin of Pacific coast bays and estuaries, named for the large branching (antler-like) spine on its gill cover.
brackish
Sauger
A slender, olive-gold relative of the walleye, best known for the rows of black spots on its spiny dorsal fin and its love of murky river currents.
freshwater
Sand Seatrout
A pale, slender weakfish common in Gulf of Mexico bays and estuaries, closely related to spotted seatrout but lacking body spots.
brackish
Redband Parrotfish
A small, variable Caribbean parrotfish; terminal males are green with a red band and a distinctive yellow-and-black shoulder spot.
reef
Powder Blue Tang
A vivid powder-blue surgeonfish with a black facial mask and white throat patch, common on shallow reef edges across the Indian Ocean.
reef
Reedfish
A snake-bodied African fish with a lung-like breathing organ, related to bichirs, prized for its unusual elongated form and air-breathing ability.
freshwater
Red Snapper
A rosy-red snapper of the Gulf of Mexico and southeastern U.S. coast, recognized by its sloped profile, sharp triangular teeth, and bright red eyes.
reef
Pilotfish
A boldly barred open-ocean jack famous for closely trailing sharks and other large marine animals for shelter and feeding opportunities.
pelagic
Megamouth Shark
An enormous, gentle filter-feeding shark with a massive rounded mouth, discovered only in 1976 and still one of the rarest sharks on record.
deepsea
Mulloway
A large, powerful drum found around Australia, South Africa, and parts of Asia, known for its silvery body, bronze sheen, and impressive size.
saltwater
Rainbow Wrasse
A slender Mediterranean and eastern-Atlantic wrasse; terminal males have a vivid orange zigzag stripe along a blue-green body.
saltwater