Search Species
Search for fish species by common or scientific name, or use filters to browse by water type, size, temperament, and difficulty.
Found 275 species
Black-chest cardinalfish
Xeniamia atrithorax
A tiny deep-reef cardinalfish described in 2016 that reaches about 3.0 cm SL. It has a distinctive dark melanophore patch on the chest/isthmus region and shows male mouthbrooding (brooding eggs reported in males). Recorded from the South China Sea off central Vietnam, with later records from Taiwan; reported from ~40–119 m depth (often ~70–119 m).
Black dwarfgoby
Eviota vader
Eviota vader is a tiny, purplish‑black dwarfgoby described in 2025 and named for Darth Vader; it is known from a single specimen collected at 4 m on a Porites coral bommie in the Tufi fjord area of Papua New Guinea. The holotype measured 11.5 mm SL and the species’ overall dark purplish‑black coloration is unique among described Eviota.
Black-edge cabillus
Cabillus nigromarginatus
Cabillus nigromarginatus is a very small marine goby (to about 3 cm) described from Rodrigues in the Western Indian Ocean, with records including Seychelles; it is known as the black-edge cabillus.
Blackfin pygmy skate
Fenestraja atripinna
Fenestraja atripinna is a small, deepwater (upper slope) bathydemersal pygmy skate from the Western Central Atlantic (e.g., Bahamas/Cuba/Florida region) reported from ~310–870 m (often deeper than ~440 m). Biology is poorly known; like other skates it is oviparous (egg cases).
Blackfin slatey
Diagramma melanacrum
This is a big Indo-West Pacific sweetlips/grunt that cruises reefs and hangs in caves, and it gets that cool yellow-and-silver look sprinkled with dark spots plus the really obvious black on the lower tail and the pelvic/anal fins. Juveniles show up in murkier estuary and silty reef areas, then the adults shift deeper and often sit in small groups until they go hunting at night. In aquariums its size is the whole story - it is a public-aquarium kind of fish once grown.
Blackflash ribbonfish
Trachipterus jacksonensis
This is one of those true open-ocean ribbonfish - long, silvery, and super weird-looking in the best way, with a tall red dorsal fin when its in good shape. Its a deepwater, roaming marine species that occasionally turns up nearshore or even in estuaries, but its not something you can realistically keep in a home aquarium.
Blackspot razorfish
Iniistius dea
This is one of the coolest "knife-bodied" wrasses - it hangs over open sand and, when it gets spooked or wants to sleep, it literally torpedoes straight into the sand. Give it a deep, fine sand bed and it will act totally different (and way more natural) than a typical rock-hugging reef wrasse. Adults are usually shy and cruisy with tankmates, but they are not forgiving about rough handling or sketchy setups.
Blotched catshark
Scyliorhinus meadi
Scyliorhinus meadi is a deepwater little catshark from the western central Atlantic that hangs out way down on the continental slope around 300-600 m. It is got those dark saddle-like blotches and even has tiny spots that can fluoresce yellow under blue light, which is pretty wild for a shark. This is not really an aquarium fish - it is a cold, deepwater species with specialized needs and basically no normal hobby availability.
Blueband goby
Valenciennea strigata
This is that classic gold/yellow-headed sand-sifting goby with the little blue cheek stripe-always busy, always rearranging your sandbed. In a reef tank it'll spend the day taking mouthfuls of sand, filtering out tiny critters/foods, then "snowing" clean sand back out, and it'll usually claim a burrow area (often as a pair in the wild). It's super cool behavior-wise, but you really do need a mature tank with a proper sandbed and a lid because they can jump.
Blue blanquillo
Malacanthus latovittatus
This is the long, torpedo-shaped tilefish with the blue front end and that bold black stripe down the side. In the wild it hangs over outer reef slopes and will also claim a burrow area, so in a tank you are basically keeping a cruise-missile that also wants a safe "home base" and a tight lid.
Blue skate
Notoraja azurea
Gorgeous fish, but strictly a look-dont-keep species: a metallic-blue deepwater skate from southern Australia that glides along the continental slope 765-1440 m down in about 3-6 C water. It tops out around 65 cm and occasionally turns up in deep-sea trawls, but conditions that cold and pressurized put it way outside home-aquarium territory. ([fishbase.se](https://fishbase.se/summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=63978))
Blunt-snouted grenadier
Ventrifossa obtusirostris
This is a deep-sea rattail (grenadier) from the southeastern Pacific, living way down on the slope around 750-800 m deep. It is a long, tapering, big-headed macrourid that tops out around 30 cm, and its short, blunt snout is basically the whole idea behind the species name.