Fish That Start With B - Page 2 of 4
Browse all aquarium fish species with common names beginning with "B". Each profile includes care requirements, water parameters, tank size recommendations, and compatibility information for freshwater, marine, and brackish species.
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.
Bishop toothcarp
Brachyrhaphis episcopi
This is a tiny Panamanian livebearer that does best when you treat it more like a shy wild fish than a fancy guppy-lots of cover, calm vibes, and really clean water. The fun part is watching the males posture and spar while the females cruise around dropping fully-formed fry about once a month.
Black Neon Tetra
Hyphessobrycon herbertaxelrodi
Black neons are one of those little tetras that look kinda understated until the light hits them-then that bright stripe pops and they shimmer when the school turns together. They're super chill, always cruising mid-water, and they make a tank feel "alive" without being hectic. If you keep a nice group, they get bolder and you'll see way more of their personality.
Black River madtom
Noturus maydeni
Noturus maydeni is a tiny little riffle catfish from the Ozarks that lives tucked into cool, clear, fast water over gravel and rocks. Its claim to fame is being super range-limited (Black and St. Francis river drainages), and like other madtoms its pectoral spines can give you a nasty poke if you grab it wrong.
Black Skirt Tetra (Black Widow Tetra)
Gymnocorymbus ternetzi
Black skirts are those little "suit-and-tie" tetras with the dark bands and flowing fins that look way fancier than they should for how tough they are. They're super active midwater fish, and when you keep a proper group they do that tight, zippy schooling thing that makes the whole tank feel alive. Just give them enough buddies and finny tankmates they won't be tempted to nip.
Black carp
Mylopharyngodon piceus
This is the big mollusk-crushing carp with the crazy pharyngeal teeth - once it hits juvenile size it starts hunting snails and clams and, as an adult, it is basically built to eat shells. It gets absolutely enormous (think pond/lake fish, not aquarium fish), and it tends to cruise low and feed near the bottom.
Black dwarfgoby
Eviota vader
Eviota vader is a truly tiny, purplish-black little reef goby from Papua New Guinea that was only described in 2025. It was named after Darth Vader because the whole fish is basically dark purple-black, which is wild for an Eviota. Its size is the big story here - at barely over 1 cm, its main challenge in aquariums would be making sure it actually gets enough to eat.
Black loach
Eonemachilus niger
This is a tiny, deep-velvet-black stone loach from Yunnan, China, with the odd detail that the tail fin is not black like the rest of the fish. Its wild range is extremely limited, so its aquarium presence is basically nil - this is more of a conservation-interest species than something you will actually see for sale.
Black morpho tetra
Poecilocharax weitzmani
Poecilocharax weitzmani is one of those tiny blackwater oddballs that acts more like a little darter than a typical tetra - it hangs low, darts between cover, and the males can get pretty showy with fin-flares. The really cool part is they are cave breeders with male brood care, which is not what most people expect from a small characin. Give them very soft, acidic, super-clean water and lots of leaf litter and hidey holes, and they settle in and start showing their best colors.
Black verilus
Verilus sordidus
Verilus sordidus (the black verilus) is a deep-reef Caribbean ocean bass with a big eye and a seriously toothy mouth for its size. It is not really an aquarium fish - it is a deeper-water marine species that shows up around rocky bottoms and is rarely seen in the trade.
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-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 pupfish
Cyprinodon beltrani
Cyprinodon beltrani is a tiny Mexican pupfish from Lake Chichancanab, and the males get those dark fin accents that make them look way tougher than their size. These busy little substrate-pickers consume detritus and other tiny bits, and surprisingly, they can be feisty with each other, especially during male-to-male interactions.
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.
Blackfin stargazer
Ichthyscopus nigripinnis
This is a little sand-sitting stargazer from Australia that likes to lie in wait with its eyes up top and nail passing prey. That black mark on the front part of the dorsal fin is basically its signature. Cool fish, but its more of a wild marine predator than something you set up in a typical home aquarium.
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.
Blackhawk catfish
Wallago micropogon
Wallago micropogon is one of those true monster Mekong catfish - long, dark, and built like a living vacuum cleaner with an absurdly big mouth. In the wild it is a straight-up fish eater that cruises flooded forests and river edges, and in an aquarium it is basically a predator display animal that needs pond-level space.
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.
Blackspotted snake eel
Quassiremus ascensionis
A tropical marine snake eel that buries in soft substrates (sand/mud/gravel) with only the head exposed to ambush prey. Recorded to 71 cm TL and occurs mainly in the western Atlantic (also Brazil) and at Ascension Island; typically found in shallow inshore habitats to ~12 m, including sand and seagrass (turtle grass) areas.
Blacktip rasbora
Rasbora dorsinotata
This is a slim little Southeast Asian rasbora with a clean dark lateral stripe and a neat black tip on the dorsal fin. In a group it gets way more confident and you will see that tight midwater schooling behavior, especially in a planted tank with some flow.
Blotched eelpout
Zoarces gillii
Zoarces gillii is a cold-temperate eelpout from the Northwest Pacific that hugs the bottom over sandy-mud inshore areas and even pushes into estuaries. It's got that long, eel-like body and a sneaky, sit-on-the-bottom predator vibe - very much a cool-water, brackish-to-marine oddball rather than a typical tropical aquarium fish.
Blue Green Chromis (Green Chromis)
Chromis viridis
Blue Green Chromis are those shimmery little green-blue darts you'll see zipping around the top of a reef tank, always looking like they're catching the light just right. They're super fun in a group because they hover and cruise together, but they've got a bit of a "pecking order" thing going on if the tank's tight or the group's too small.
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 discus
Symphysodon aequifasciatus
This is one of the classic wild discus from the Amazon-big, round, and super "cichlid-smart," but way more chill than most cichlids. The coolest part to me is the parenting: the fry actually feed off a mucus layer from the parents' skin for a while, which is just wild to see if you ever breed them.