Search Species
Search for fish species by common or scientific name, or use filters to browse by water type, size, temperament, and difficulty.
Found 337 species
Aroa twig catfish
Farlowella martini
Farlowella martini is one of those unreal-looking stick catfish that just vanishes the moment it parks itself on a branch. It is a super calm, slow-moving grazer that does best in a mature tank with lots of biofilm, gentle flow, and clean, oxygen-rich water - they are not great at competing at feeding time, so you kind of have to look out for them.
Arraya's bluntnose knifefish
Brachyhypopomus arrayae
This is a weakly-electric South American knifefish that cruises around plants and root mats and does most of its business after lights-out. It is a pretty subtle-looking fish (more earthy browns than flashy colors), but the cool part is the whole electric-sense lifestyle and that smooth, hovering knifefish swim.
Austellus barb
Dawkinsia austellus
Dawkinsia austellus is a freshwater cyprinid endemic to southern India (Western Ghats region). It is an active, shoaling barb best maintained in a group in a spacious, well-filtered aquarium with good oxygenation and regular maintenance.
Avacanoeiro whiptail catfish
Lamontichthys avacanoeiro
This is one of those rarer Lamontichthys whiptails from Brazil that looks like it was built for fast water - long, armored, and made to hug the bottom in current. In the wild its from the upper Rio Tocantins basin, and in a tank it will really appreciate super clean, oxygen-rich water and lots of smooth surfaces to graze.
Baikal white grayling
Thymallus brevipinnis
Think of a trout-shaped fish with a huge sail-like dorsal fin that really pops on the males. It comes from Lake Baikal and wants icy, roaring, ultra-clear water with a ton of oxygen, so it is more of a public-aquarium fish than a home tank resident. It shoals and snaps up drifting insects, but will also take small crustaceans, fish eggs, and the odd tiny fish.
Bailian cave loach
Micronemacheilus bailianensis
A small freshwater nemacheilid (stone loach) described from Bailian Cave near Liuzhou City, Guangxi, China; maximum recorded size about 4 cm SL. Troglobitic/cave-associated species with limited natural distribution.
Bajiang Yunnan loach
Yunnanilus bajiangensis
This is a tiny Chinese stone loach from Yunnan that lives down on the bottom and stays pretty small (around 6.5 cm max). Honestly, its "cool factor" is more about being a super-local river fish than being a flashy aquarium species - and because it is listed as Critically Endangered, its conservation status is the big headline here.
Banded Batasio
Batasio fasciolatus
This is a small hillstream bagrid catfish from the Tista drainage up in the Brahmaputra system. It spends a lot of time tucked under rocks and comes alive more at dusk and at night, so the more caves and crevices you give it, the more you will actually see it. The vertical banding is super sharp in good condition, and they really appreciate cool, oxygen-rich flow.
Banded dwarf three-barbel catfish
Nannoglanis fasciatus
This is a tiny little Ecuadorian heptapterid catfish with bold banding - a real under-the-radar oddball that almost never shows up in shops. Since there is basically no solid aquarium-care literature for it, I would treat it like a small, shy, bottom-hugging Amazon/upper Amazon tributary catfish: lots of cover, gentle flow, and clean, well-oxygenated water.
Banjo catfish
Xyliphius kryptos
Xyliphius kryptos is a small banjo catfish (family Aspredinidae) from the Lake Maracaibo basin of Venezuela and Colombia. It reaches about 11 cm SL and is cryptic and nocturnal, typically resting buried in soft substrate or among leaf litter by day and foraging along the bottom at night.
Barred topminnow
Quintana atrizona
This is a tiny Cuban livebearer that likes to lurk in thick plants and do that classic livebearer "hover and peck" routine all day. The cool part is the subtle black barring and how the fish kind of vanishes into floating plants, then pops right back out when food hits the water.
Barrens topminnow
Fundulus julisia
Fundulus julisia is a rare Tennessee Barrens Plateau topminnow that lives near the surface in springs and spring-fed creeks, often around aquatic vegetation, feeding largely on small aquatic insects. It is federally listed as Endangered (U.S., 2019) and is the focus of captive propagation and reintroduction efforts.