Search Species
Search for fish species by common or scientific name, or use filters to browse by water type, size, temperament, and difficulty.
Water Type
Search for fish species by common or scientific name, or use filters to browse by water type, size, temperament, and difficulty.
Found 249 species
Urotrygon nana
This is a tiny tropical round stingray from the eastern Pacific that spends its time cruising and burying in soft sand in very shallow water. It stays relatively small for a stingray (still a real ray, not a "mini" aquarium species), and it does carry a venomous tail spine, so it is absolutely a hands-off animal.
Andamia heteroptera
This is one of those wild intertidal blennies that clings to wave-battered rocks with a sucker-like lower lip and will even pop out onto damp rock when conditions let it. In the ocean its whole lifestyle is about hanging on in the splash zone, grazing and picking at tiny foods between surges, so it is a super cool fish but honestly not a typical "throw it in a reef tank" kind of species.
Ventichthys biospeedoi
This is a deep-sea cusk-eel that lives right around hydrothermal vents on the Southeast Pacific Rise - basically the fish equivalent of hanging out next to an underwater volcano. Its thick skin and other oddball body features are thought to be adaptations for that extreme vent neighborhood, and it seems to be a scavenger/predator on small stuff down on the bottom.
Saurenchelys elongata
Saurenchelys elongata is a skinny, deepwater duckbill eel - basically a living piece of spaghetti with a long, pointed snout. It is not an aquarium fish in any normal sense (it is a marine, bathydemersal species), and it is the kind of animal you mostly see in research catches, not at fish stores.
Dicentrarchus labrax
This is the classic Mediterranean/NE Atlantic seabass (the restaurant branzino) - a super sleek, silver predator that cruises shorelines, harbors, and estuaries. Juveniles will school, but bigger adults get more solitary and are built to inhale shrimp and smaller fish. It can handle brackish water and a pretty wide temp swing, but it is absolutely not a typical home-aquarium fish because it gets huge and needs serious swimming room.
Cirrhilabrus exquisitus
This is one of those fairy wrasses that looks like it was painted with highlighters - males can shift through greens, reds, blues, and purples depending on mood and whether they are showing off. In a reef tank its usually out and cruising the water column, grabbing tiny meaty foods, and doing little display flare-ups at its own reflection or other wrasses. Biggest real-world gotcha is they are jumpers, so a tight lid or mesh top is basically mandatory.
Careproctus cypselurus
Careproctus cypselurus (falcate snailfish) is a marine, bathydemersal snailfish (Liparidae) from the North Pacific (off Japan and from the Sea of Okhotsk to off Washington, USA), recorded from deep water (about 35–1993 m). It is not a typical aquarium species due to its deep-sea/coldwater ecology and specialized life-support needs.
Zoarces fedorovi
Zoarces fedorovi is a cold-water eelpout from the northern Sea of Okhotsk - an eel-shaped, bottom-hugging fish that hides under rocks and cruises around the bottom. Its claim to fame is being livebearing (viviparous), which is pretty wild for a marine fish, but its exact day-to-day habits in the wild are still not super well documented.
Xenisthmus oligoporus
This is a teeny little Red Sea reef wriggler that lives down in sandy spots and stays pretty secretive. At barely around an inch long, its whole vibe is "blink and you miss it" - more of a cool oddball micro-predator than a display fish.
Nemateleotris magnifica
This is that little "hover-and-dart" reef fish with the yellow face and the white-to-red fade that looks like it was airbrushed on. It'll pick a bolt-hole in the rockwork, hang in the water column facing the current, and do that cute little flag-flick with the tall first dorsal fin when it's feeling bold.
Zesticelus profundorum
This is a tiny deepwater sculpin from the North Pacific that lives way down on the bottom, not cruising around the reefs like typical “aquarium marines”. The wild habitat is cold, dark, and high-pressure (down to around 2580 m), so it is basically a “look up in a museum database” fish rather than something you can realistically keep at home.
Gyrinomimus grahami
Gyrinomimus grahami is a deep-sea flabby whalefish from the Southern Ocean-ish parts of the world - big head, huge mouth, tiny eyes, and a super soft-bodied look. Its adult females are described as dark with reddish tones and orangey fins, and it lives crazy-deep in the bathypelagic zone, so its whole vibe is built around life in perpetual darkness.