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
Abe's eelpout
Japonolycodes abei
Japonolycodes abei is a temperate, deepwater demersal eelpout (family Zoarcidae) endemic to Japan (Kumano-nada Sea reported; other sources also report Sagami Bay and Tosa Bay). It is the only species in the genus Japonolycodes and occurs roughly 40-300 m depth, making it an uncommon/atypical aquarium species.
Affinis blind cusk-eel
Barathronus affinis
Barathronus affinis is a tiny, super-weird deep-sea blind cusk-eel from the western-central Indian Ocean. It is one of those gelatinous, loose-skinned brotula-type fishes that live way down in the dark and are basically never seen alive, so almost everything we know comes from preserved specimens and taxonomic work.
Allis shad
Alosa alosa
Gorgeous silver, fast-swimming shad that spends most of its life in the sea and then surges up big rivers in noisy, surface-spawning schools. It grows huge for a herring-type fish and needs cool, ultra-oxygenated water and tons of open space, so it is a public-aquarium species rather than a home tank fish.
Annandale's zebra sole
Zebrias annandalei
Zebrias annandalei is a small demersal sole from coastal India that inhabits sandy or muddy bottoms and buries for camouflage. It is rarely kept in home aquaria and would require a specialized marine sand-bottom setup and appropriate feeding.
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.
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.
Ben-Tuvia's goby
Didogobius bentuvii
This is a tiny little Mediterranean goby from the Israeli coast that lives down on the bottom over muddy-sand, and it is likely a burrower. In other words, it is a blink-and-you-miss-it kind of fish - super small, demersal, and more about sneaky bottom-dweller vibes than flashy swimming.
Big-eye anchovy
Anchoa lamprotaenia
Anchoa lamprotaenia is a slim, silvery little anchovy from warm western Atlantic coastal waters, with that clean silver side stripe and big eyes that make it look extra sharp. It is a pelagic, open-water schooling fish that spends its life cruising near the surface and picking zooplankton out of the water column. In practice its not really an aquarium species, because it wants constant swimming room, high oxygen, and a steady supply of tiny foods.
Bigeye brotula
Glyptophidium longipes
Glyptophidium longipes is a deepwater cusk-eel (brotula) from the western Indian Ocean - a slender, eel-ish fish with oversized eyes and long ventral-fin rays. It is a bathyal slope species from a few hundred meters down, so its real-world needs (cold, dark, high-pressure habitat) make it essentially an observation-only "research" animal rather than a practical aquarium fish.
Bigeye clingfish
Kopua nuimata
Kopua nuimata is a tiny deepwater clingfish with big eyes and a neat pink-and-orange banded pattern. It lives way down on reefy slopes (roughly 160-337 m), so its "care" is mostly academic - its natural habitat is cold, dark, high-pressure water that we just do not replicate in home aquariums.
Bigeye lightfish
Danaphos oculatus
Tiny deep-sea bottlelight that hangs out 400-650 m down, flashing belly photophores and peering with big eyes. Adults stay petite at about 5.7 cm and turn up from the NE Pacific (British Columbia to California) out to Hawaii, with records in the SE Pacific too. Not an aquarium fish at all - it lives in cold, high-pressure darkness and munches large copepods, so it is one to admire in field guides rather than tanks. ([fishbase.se](https://fishbase.se/LarvalBase/Summary/LarvaSummary.php?genusname=Danaphos&speciesname=oculatus&utm_source=openai))
Bigfin shrimpgoby
Vanderhorstia macropteryx
This is one of those classic sand-dwelling shrimp gobies that posts up at a burrow entrance and keeps watch while its pistol shrimp roommate does the digging. In the tank its vibe is basically "little sentinel" - calm, bottom-oriented, and super fun to observe if you give it sand and a secure lid (they can jump).