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.
Kuhli Loach
An eel-like, nocturnal loach with a banded body that burrows through substrate in streams across Southeast Asia.
freshwater
Yellow Stingray
A small, boldly patterned stingray of the western Atlantic and Caribbean, often seen resting on sand near coral reefs and seagrass beds in shallow, clear water.
reefWinter Flounder
The winter flounder is a small, right-eyed flatfish of the northwest Atlantic, named for its habit of moving into shallow coastal bays during the colder months.
saltwaterMexican Lamprey
The Mexican lamprey is a jawless fish endemic to freshwater rivers of the central Mexican highlands, one of the few lamprey species found so far south in North America.
freshwater
Tiger Shark
A large, robust shark named for the dark vertical bars on its flanks, most vivid in juveniles, known for an unusually broad, opportunistic diet.
cartilaginousSloane's Viperfish
A slender deep-sea predator armed with needle-like fangs so long they cannot close inside its mouth, along with a light-tipped dorsal spine used to lure prey close.
deepsea
Silver Bream
A silvery European freshwater fish with notably large, protruding eyes, often confused with young Common Bream but distinguished by its larger scales.
freshwater
Sepik Rainbowfish
A deep-bodied rainbowfish from the floodplain lakes and swamps of the Sepik River in Papua New Guinea, covered in unusually fine, numerous scales.
freshwater
Seahorse
An unmistakable upright-swimming fish with a horse-like head and curled prehensile tail, notable for males carrying and giving birth to offspring.
reef
Scrawled Filefish
The Scrawled Filefish is a large, thin-bodied filefish covered in unique blue and black scribbled lines and spots, found drifting near reefs in tropical seas worldwide.
reef
Salmon Shark
A powerful, warm-bodied mackerel shark closely related to the Porbeagle, built for speed in the cold North Pacific and named for its preference for salmon.
pelagic
Ringtail Surgeonfish
A blue-grey Indo-Pacific tang identified by the narrow white ring encircling its tail base; common on coral and rocky reefs from East Africa to Hawaii.
reef
Rockfish
Rockfish is a broad name for the roughly 100-plus Sebastes species of the North Pacific, spiny-finned, long-lived fish closely tied to rocky reefs and kelp forests.
saltwater
Redlip Halfbeak
A slender coastal halfbeak with a needle-thin lower jaw tipped in vivid red, gliding in small schools over shallow tropical Indo-Pacific waters.
saltwater
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
Pouting
Also called bib, the Pouting is a deep-bodied, coppery-bronze gadoid common around rocky reefs and wrecks of the northeastern Atlantic and Mediterranean.
saltwater
Pacific Saury
A slender, silvery, beaked schooling fish of the temperate North Pacific, closely related to needlefish, marked by a row of small finlets near its tail.
pelagic
Pearl Danio
A slender, iridescent danio with a shifting pearly sheen of blue, pink, and gold along its flanks, native to fast-flowing Southeast Asian streams.
freshwater
Ohrid Trout
The Ohrid Trout is a salmonid endemic to Lake Ohrid on the border of North Macedonia and Albania, found nowhere else on Earth and now critically endangered in the wild.
freshwater
Pacific Blackdragon
An eel-like deep-sea dragonfish whose females are entirely jet-black with a long chin barbel, while the tiny, non-feeding males look almost nothing like them.
deepsea
Mexican Tetra
A resilient silvery tetra native to Texas and Mexico, renowned for cave populations that lost their eyes and pigment through evolution in total darkness.
freshwater
Midas Cichlid
A large, variably colored Central American cichlid, ranging from mottled gray to solid gold-orange, known for its bold and often combative nature.
freshwater
Lake Wanam Rainbowfish
A deep-bodied rainbowfish endemic to the small crater Lake Wanam in Papua New Guinea, with males showing rich orange-red body coloration.
freshwaterHerring
One of the world's most abundant fish, the herring forms colossal schools in cold North Atlantic waters and underpins much of the region's marine food web.
pelagic