Search Species
Search for fish species by common or scientific name, or use filters to browse by water type, size, temperament, and difficulty.
Found 232 species
Stripefin ronquil
Rathbunella hypoplecta
This is a little bottom-hugging California coast fish that hangs around rocky and sandy spots and spends a lot of time tucked into structure. It eats small invertebrates and the male actually guards the eggs, which is pretty cool if you are into fish with real parenting behavior.
Suborbital lanternfish
Diaphus suborbitalis
This is a little deep-sea lanternfish from the Indo-West Pacific that spends its life way down in the dark and uses photophores (light organs) like a built-in nightlight. It tops out around 7.3 cm standard length and is a true pelagic ocean fish, not something you will realistically see in the aquarium trade.
Sunda viviparous brotula
Ungusurculus sundaensis
This is a tiny little reef-dwelling brotula that lives tucked into cracks and crevices in very shallow water. The wild thing about these guys is they are livebearers (viviparous), which is pretty unusual among marine fishes, and they tend to be super cryptic and solitary.
Tanaka's possum wrasse
Wetmorella tanakai
This is one of those tiny, sneaky reef wrasses that basically lives in the rockwork and pops out to hunt little micro-bugs all day. The red-orange body with thin white bars and those little "eye spots" on the fins make it a really cool "where did that fish come from?" kind of addition. It is super peaceful, but it does best in a mature reef where it can graze and not get pushed around.
Tchefou cardinalfish
Jaydia tchefouensis
Jaydia tchefouensis is a little marine cardinalfish (Apogonidae) originally described from Chefoo/Tche-Fou (modern Yantai), China. Real talk: this name is kind of messy in the literature and may actually be a junior synonym of Jaydia lineata, so you will almost never see it sold under this exact ID in the aquarium trade. Like other cardinalfish, expect a shy, nocturnal vibe that hangs near structure and picks off small meaty foods.
Thompson's poacher
Freemanichthys thompsoni
Freemanichthys thompsoni is a temperate, demersal marine poacher (family Agonidae) from the northwestern Pacific, reported from roughly 10–300 m depth and reaching about 22 cm total length. Because it is a coldwater/deeper-water species, it is rarely suitable for typical tropical marine aquaria and would require specialized chilled, high-oxygen systems if kept.
Threadfin seasnail
Rhodichthys regina
This is a deep-sea snailfish from the Arctic and far North Atlantic - not an aquarium fish at all, but a really neat oddball from way down in the cold and dark. It lives on or right above the bottom and cruises around picking off crustaceans, and in life it can be bright red which is wild for something from 1000+ meters down.
Three-spot righteye flounder
Samariscus triocellatus
This is a tiny little Indo-Pacific flounder that lives right on sand and rubble around reefs, and it can be ridiculously hard to spot once it settles in. The coolest part is the three eye-like spots (ocelli) and the way it kind of creeps along the bottom hunting small benthic critters at dusk.
Tidepool snailfish
Liparis florae
This is a little coldwater snailfish that literally lives in tide pools on exposed Pacific coast rock, hiding under algae and stones when the surf is crashing. It has that classic soft, tadpole-ish snailfish look and a suction-disk belly, so it can cling in place instead of getting tossed around. Super cool fish biologically, but it is absolutely not a normal home-aquarium species unless youre set up for a chilled marine system.
Tiger watchman goby
Valenciennea wardii
This is one of those classic sand-sifting sleeper gobies that will stay busy all day taking mouthfuls of sand, picking out tiny foods, and spitting the clean sand back out. Super chill temperament, but it really wants a mature tank with a real sandbed so it can do its thing without slowly starving. Also heads-up: they can redecorate by burying frags and making little bulldozer trenches.
Tubeshoulder
Mentodus mesalirus
Mentodus mesalirus is a deep-sea tubeshoulder - one of those wild ocean fish that can squirt a bioluminescent fluid from a special tube organ near the shoulder. It is not an aquarium species at all, but it is seriously cool from a biology standpoint because that light-producing setup is basically its whole claim to fame.
Vanuatu goatfish
Upeneus vanuatu
Upeneus vanuatu is a small deep-water goatfish from off Vanuatu that lives way down around 191-321 m, so its natural water is cooler and darker than typical reef goatfish. Like other goatfish it has the little chin barbels for rooting around for food, but honestly this one is more of a scientific oddball than a realistic aquarium fish because of the depth it comes from.