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
Humphead thryssa
Thryssa polybranchialis
Picture a slim, silvery anchovy with a little hump on the nape, ripping around in tight, flashy schools. It lives off tiny plankton and really needs open water and big flow, so this one is a public-aquarium fish more than a home tank project.
Hung's silvermouth cardinalfish
Jaydia hungi
Jaydia hungi is a little marine cardinalfish from the western Indian Ocean (including the Red Sea) that spends its time down near the bottom and comes alive more at night. Like a lot of cardinalfish, the cool party trick is the male mouthbroods the eggs, so breeding behavior is way more interesting than you would guess from a small, silvery fish.
Hyaline cardinalfish
Foa hyalina
This is a tiny little reef cardinalfish that looks almost glass-clear with a few reddish-brown stripes, so it kind of vanishes when it hangs in soft corals. In the wild it tends to be solitary and it tucks itself into Sinularia-type soft coral for cover, then comes alive more at night like a lot of cardinals do. Like other apogonids, it is a mouthbrooder, so once you see a male holding, he will go off food for a bit.
Indian Ocean lanternfish
Lampanyctus indicus
Lampanyctus indicus is a tiny deep-sea lanternfish from the equatorial Indian Ocean. Like other myctophids it has rows of light organs (photophores) and does the classic up-and-down daily migration in the water column. Super cool animal, but realistically its a research/deep-ocean species, not an aquarium fish.
Indian perch
Jaydia lineata
Jaydia lineata is a little Indo-West Pacific cardinalfish with a clean set of brown vertical bands and that classic big-eyed, hang-back cardinalfish vibe. The really cool part is the breeding - the male mouthbroods the eggs, so if you ever got a pair settled in, you could actually see some neat parental care behavior.
Indian sevenfinger threadfin
Filimanus similis
Filimanus similis is a small marine threadfin from the Indian Ocean with seven long, finger-like pectoral filaments it uses to feel around the bottom for food. Its color in life is usually brownish on top with a golden/silvery belly, and the fins often show darker edging, so it has that neat sandy-coast vibe. This is a demersal (bottom-associated) coastal species that shows up in trawl catches rather than the aquarium trade.
Iyo jawfish
Opistognathus iyonis
Tiny sand-burrower from southern Japan and Korea that spends the day peeking out of a tunnel it builds from sand and shell bits. Males mouthbrood the eggs, and this species prefers cooler marine temps than typical reef fish, so give it a deep sand bed, some rubble, and a tight lid since they jump.
Izu dragonet
Callionymus izuensis
This is a little Japanese sand-dwelling dragonet from around the Izu Islands. Think of it as a bottom-hopper that hangs out on coarse sand and rubble and spends its time picking at tiny critters like most dragonets do. Super cool fish, but it is really more of a niche, species-tank kind of project than a casual community add.
Japanese deepwater clingfish
Aspasma minima
Aspasma minima is a tiny little marine clingfish from southern Japan that spends its life hugging hard surfaces with that cool suction-disc belly. Its whole vibe is secretive and bottom-oriented, more like a micro predator you design a tank around than a "community fish" you toss in with everything.
Japanese dory
Zenion japonicum
Zenion japonicum is a small deepwater dory from way down on the continental slope - silvery, big-eyed, and kind of "alien-cute" in that zeiform way. This is not an aquarium fish in any normal sense (it lives hundreds of meters deep in cold water), but it is a really neat bycatch species with that classic dory shape and spiny fins.
Japanese silver-biddy
Gerres equulus
Gerres equulus (Japanese silver-biddy) is a temperate, demersal coastal mojarra from the northwest Pacific (southern Korea to southern Japan), typically over sandy shallows; it is generally reported as absent from the Ryukyu Islands. It is primarily a coastal fish and is not commonly maintained in home aquaria; if kept, provide ample open swimming space and stable marine conditions.
Jonathan's cusk-eel
Neobythites jonathan
Neobythites jonathan is a deepwater cusk-eel from the western Pacific (Solomon Sea) that lives way down on the lower shelf/upper slope. It is a small, slender bottom-associated fish with a bold ocellus (eye-spot) on the dorsal fin - cool little bit of "fake eye" patterning you see in a bunch of Neobythites.