Fish Identifier

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.

all freshwater saltwater reef pelagic cartilaginous deepsea brackish

Common Carp

A large, hardy, bottom-feeding fish native to Eurasia and now found worldwide, recognizable by its stout body, barbels, and long dorsal fin, and the wild ancestor of ornamental koi.

Carp

A heavy-bodied freshwater fish with large, coarse scales, two pairs of barbels near its mouth, and a highly adaptable, bottom-foraging lifestyle found across much of the world.

Silver Carp

A large, filter-feeding East Asian carp famous for leaping high out of the water when startled by boat noise, and notorious as an invasive species in North American rivers.

Grass Carp

A large, torpedo-shaped herbivorous carp native to East Asia, widely introduced worldwide to control aquatic vegetation due to its voracious appetite for water plants.

Crucian Carp

A hardy, deep-bodied European carp closely related to goldfish, remarkable for its ability to survive winters in oxygen-depleted ponds by producing alcohol as a metabolic byproduct.

Bighead Carp

A large, big-headed East Asian carp that filter-feeds on zooplankton, closely related to the silver carp and similarly established as an invasive species in North American rivers.

Common Bream

A deep-bodied, bronze-flanked European fish that forms large shoals in slow rivers and lakes, feeding on the bottom with a distinctive protrusible, tube-like mouth.

Common Dab

The common dab is a small, right-eyed flatfish of European shelf seas, identified by its rough, sandpapery skin and curved lateral line above the pectoral fin.

Common Roach

A widespread European freshwater fish with a silvery body and distinctive red-orange fins, forming large shoals in slow rivers, lakes, and canals.

Common Pandora

The common pandora is a slender pink sparid of the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic, typically found over sandy and muddy bottoms where it feeds on small invertebrates.

Common Lumpsucker

Common Lumpsucker

Shaped like a rounded ball with a sucker disc instead of pelvic fins, the Common Lumpsucker drifts through cold North Atlantic waters before moving inshore to spawn on rocky shores.

Common Skate

One of the largest skates in the world, now Critically Endangered after severe historical overfishing across its North Atlantic range.

Common Pleco

A large, heavily armored South American catfish with a suckermouth used to graze algae and biofilm from rocks and submerged wood.

Common Sole

The common sole is a slender, right-eyed flatfish of European coastal waters, recognizable by its elongated oval body and small, curved mouth adapted for nighttime foraging.

Common Archerfish

Common Archerfish

A deep-bodied, silvery fish famed for spitting jets of water to knock insects off overhanging vegetation into the water.

Common Dace

A slender, silvery cyprinid of clean, fast-flowing rivers, the common dace forms active shoals in mid-water, darting to snatch drifting insects from the current.

Common Dragonet

Common Dragonet

A sand-dwelling northeastern Atlantic fish with striking sexual dimorphism, males growing a dramatically elongated dorsal fin and long tail streamers.

Common Minnow

A small, active cyprinid of cool, clean streams, the common minnow forms dense shoals over gravel, and breeding males develop vivid red bellies and bright spawning colors.

Mrigal

A slender, silvery Indian carp and one of the three traditional Indian major carps, the mrigal is a bottom-feeding scavenger with a small mouth and short barbels, farmed widely across South Asia.

Rohu

A large South Asian river carp with a streamlined, silvery-grey body, widely farmed across the Indian subcontinent as a major aquaculture species and prized angling fish.

Catla

One of India's most important aquaculture fish, the catla is a large, fast-growing surface-feeding carp with a broad head, upturned mouth, and deep body suited to filtering plankton from open water.

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.

Goldfish

A hardy freshwater fish domesticated from the wild Prussian carp, prized worldwide as an ornamental pond and aquarium species in many color forms.

Halfbeak

The common name for slender, surface-swimming fish of the family Hemiramphidae, marked by a short upper jaw and a long, needle-like lower jaw; the Common Halfbeak represents the group.