Search Species
Search for fish species by common or scientific name, or use filters to browse by water type, size, temperament, and difficulty.
Found 654 species
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.
Banded-tail glassy perchlet
Ambassis urotaenia
This is one of those see-through glassy perchlets where you can literally watch the organs shimmer when it turns-super cool in the right lighting. In the wild it hangs around river mouths and mangroves and cruises in groups, so it does best when you keep a little gang of them and give them some open swimming room.
Banggai Cardinalfish
Pterapogon kauderni
Banggai cardinals just sort of hover like little underwater satellites, and the bold black bars with those long, polka-dotted fins look unreal under reef lighting. They're super chill most of the time, but once a pair forms you'll see real "fish drama," and the male will even mouthbrood the babies like a champ.
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.
Barbed pipefish
Urocampus nanus
Urocampus nanus (barbed pipefish) occurs in protected inshore and estuarine habitats among seagrass (Zostera) in the Northwest Pacific (southern Japan and adjacent coasts). Like other syngnathids, males brood eggs in a pouch under the tail and produce fully formed young.
Barbedwire-tailed skate
Notoraja martinezi
Notoraja martinezi is a deepwater skate from the eastern Pacific (Costa Rica down to Ecuador) that lives way down on soft bottoms. The tail is the giveaway - it is lined with strong, hooked thorns that really do look like barbed wire. This is absolutely not an aquarium fish; it is a cold, high-pressure deep-sea animal with basically no practical home care info because it is not kept in the hobby.
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.
Beach silverside
Atherinella blackburni
This is a little coastal silverside that cruises the shallows in loose groups and flashes like a tiny chrome dart when the light hits it right. In the wild it hangs around beaches, estuaries, and lagoons, picking at small drifting foods in the surf zone. It is cool, but its real "gotcha" is that it is an open-water, salt-tolerant schooling fish that does best in bigger, well-oxygenated setups rather than a typical planted community tank.
Bearded shoveljaw carp
Onychostoma barbatum
Onychostoma barbatum is a freshwater cyprinid from China. Adults inhabit streams with gravel bottoms and reach about 17.6 cm standard length; aquarium care should emphasize high water quality and strong oxygenation typical of stream-dwelling cyprinids.