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.
Barred Mudskipper
An amphibious mangrove goby with bulging eyes and muscular fins that lets it crawl and hop across exposed mud at low tide throughout the Indo-Pacific.
brackish
Barred Halfbeak
A schooling, seagrass-associated halfbeak of the Indo-Pacific with a long, red-tipped lower jaw and faint dark bars along its silvery flanks.
saltwater
Narrow-barred Spanish Mackerel
A large, fast-swimming mackerel of the Indo-Pacific marked by numerous narrow, wavy dark bars running down its silvery sides.
pelagic
Blackbarred Halfbeak
A silvery halfbeak marked with faint dark vertical bars, common over seagrass beds and reef flats across the Indo-Pacific.
reef
Flat Needlefish
A laterally flattened needlefish with a ribbon-like cross-section, patterned with dark blotches along its silvery flanks, found worldwide in warm coastal and offshore surface waters.
saltwater
Delhezi Bichir
A boldly barred Congo Basin fish with a series of dark vertical bands along its yellow-tan body and a row of spiny finlets along its back.
freshwater
Bagre Catfish
A silvery marine and estuarine catfish of the western Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, recognizable by its elongated sail-like dorsal fin filament and mouth-brooding parenting behavior.
saltwater
Nassau Grouper
A stocky Caribbean reef grouper known for its ability to rapidly change color and pattern, from pale to dark barred phases, and for forming large seasonal spawning aggregations now heavily protected.
reef
Pilotfish
A boldly barred open-ocean jack famous for closely trailing sharks and other large marine animals for shelter and feeding opportunities.
pelagicBearded Croaker
A small South American croaker easily recognized by the single sensory barbel on its chin, an unusual trait among drums.
saltwater
Gafftopsail Catfish
A silvery Atlantic sea catfish named for the tall, sail-like extension of its first dorsal fin ray and long trailing pectoral fin filaments.
saltwater
Barreleye
The barreleye, or spookfish, is a deep-sea fish with a transparent, dome-shaped head revealing barrel-shaped, upward-rotating tubular eyes, unlike any other fish.
deepsea
Pictus Catfish
A small, active South American catfish marked with dark spots over a silvery body and extremely long, trailing barbels.
freshwater
Atlantic Croaker
The Atlantic Croaker is a silvery-bronze estuarine fish with a single chin barbel and faint wavy mottling, abundant along the western Atlantic coast.
brackish
Wobbegong
A superbly camouflaged, flattened bottom-dwelling shark covered in ornate skin markings and fringed barbels that resemble seaweed or coral rubble.
saltwater
California Corbina
A prized surf-zone drum of the California coast, recognized by its uniform silvery body, sloping snout, and single chin barbel.
saltwaterHardhead Catfish
A common western Atlantic sea catfish with a bony plate on its head, short barbels, and a mouthbrooding reproductive strategy shared with related sea catfish.
saltwaterKingfish
Kingfish, led by the Northern Kingfish, are silvery-grey surf-zone drums with a chin barbel and diagonal body bars, common along Atlantic beaches.
saltwater
Black Drum
The Black Drum is a deep-bodied, greyish-black sciaenid with distinctive chin barbels, found in estuaries and coastal waters from the mid-Atlantic to Argentina.
brackish
Sterlet
The sterlet is the smallest widespread sturgeon species, a slender freshwater fish of Ponto-Caspian rivers known for its long, thin, upturned snout with fringed barbels.
freshwater
Gudgeon
A small, bottom-dwelling cyprinid with a pair of sensory barbels at the mouth corners, the gudgeon forages over gravel and sand in loose shoals, well camouflaged among stones.
freshwater
Wels Catfish
One of the largest freshwater fish in the world, the wels catfish is a scaleless, elongated predator native to European rivers and lakes, recognizable by its enormous flattened head and long barbels.
freshwater
Pacific Cod
A heavy-bodied, bottom-dwelling relative of the Atlantic Cod found across the cold North Pacific, recognized by its large head, chin barbel, and mottled brown coloring.
saltwater
Nurse Shark
A slow-moving, bottom-dwelling shark with a broad flattened head and two barbels near its nostrils, often seen resting motionless on the seafloor or under ledges by day.
cartilaginous