Fish That Start With T
Browse all aquarium fish species with common names beginning with "T". Each profile includes care requirements, water parameters, tank size recommendations, and compatibility information for freshwater, marine, and brackish species.
The 'T' species index showcases a diverse range of aquarium fish, perfect for both novice and experienced hobbyists. You’ll find charming fish like the Honey Gourami (Trichogaster chuna) and the colorful Dwarf Gourami (Trichogaster lalius), both great choices for community tanks. The vibrant Harlequin Rasbora (Trigonostigma heteromorpha) is known for its striking appearance, making it a delightful addition to aquascapes.
Tachira rubbernose pleco
Chaetostoma tachiraense
This is a small mountain Chaetostoma from the Catatumbo (Lake Maracaibo) drainage, the kind of fish that wants to be plastered to rocks in high-oxygen water. It stays around 3.4 inches SL, spends its time grazing biofilm, and does best when you treat it more like a river fish than a typical warm, lazy pleco.
Tanaka's possum wrasse
Wetmorella tanakai
This is one of those tiny, sneaky reef wrasses that basically lives in the rockwork and pops out to hunt little micro-bugs all day. The red-orange body with thin white bars and those little "eye spots" on the fins make it a really cool "where did that fish come from?" kind of addition. It is super peaceful, but it does best in a mature reef where it can graze and not get pushed around.
Tang's snapper
Lipocheilus carnolabrum
This is a deepwater snapper with a really distinctive "lumpy" fleshy upper lip - once you know that look, you spot it right away. It lives way down on rocky shelf bottoms and is more of a food-fish than an aquarium fish, mostly because it gets big and comes from colder, deeper water than a typical reef tank setup.
Tanganyika electric catfish
Malapterurus tanganyikaensis
This is an electric catfish from Lake Tanganyika that lives around the shoreline and will absolutely eat other fish (FishBase straight-up calls it a voracious piscivore that targets cichlids). Super cool animal, but it is a big, predatory, nocturnal-ish bruiser and you need to respect the fact that Malapterurus can deliver serious electric shocks when handled or stressed.
Taquari banjo catfish
Ernstichthys taquari
This is a tiny little banjo catfish from Brazil that lives right on the bottom and blends in with rocks, sand, and leaf litter. Its known habitat is shaded, vegetated stretches of a small whitewater river with moderate flow and lots of big rocks - very much a hide-and-sit-still kind of fish. In the aquarium hobby its basically a "research fish" right now: super cool, but there is almost no species-specific care data published.
Tasmanian ruffe
Tubbia tasmanica
Tubbia tasmanica (the Tasmanian ruffe) is a deepwater medusafish from cold temperate seas around Tasmania/New Zealand and even off South Africa. Its a big, offshore trawl-caught species that lives way down in the dark - so its not really an aquarium fish, but its a neat example of those weird, open-ocean/deepwater "rudderfish" types.
Tchefou cardinalfish
Jaydia tchefouensis
Jaydia tchefouensis is a little marine cardinalfish (Apogonidae) originally described from Chefoo/Tche-Fou (modern Yantai), China. Real talk: this name is kind of messy in the literature and may actually be a junior synonym of Jaydia lineata, so you will almost never see it sold under this exact ID in the aquarium trade. Like other cardinalfish, expect a shy, nocturnal vibe that hangs near structure and picks off small meaty foods.
Tentacled scorpionfish
Pontinus tentacularis
Pontinus tentacularis is a deepwater scorpionfish with those wild little tentacles over the eyes that help it break up its outline. It is a bottom-dwelling ambush predator from 170-600 m, so its needs are way more like a cold, dim, pressure-adapted fish than anything meant for a typical home marine tank.
Tequila splitfin
Zoogoneticus tequila
This is a little Mexican goodeid livebearer where the males get that awesome orange crescent in the tail and will spar and posture like tiny cichlids. They do best in a planted tank where they can duck into roots and stems, and once they're settled they'll breed steadily and you'll see lots of interesting social behavior.
Theodore's threadfin bream
Nemipterus theodorei
Nemipterus theodorei is a saltwater threadfin bream from eastern Australia with that pinkish-mauve body, clean little yellow-green striping, and a red spot on the side. Its a sand-and-mud bottom cruiser from deeper coastal water, so its really more of a wild marine/fishery species than something youd realistically keep in a home aquarium.
Thin sand-eel
Yirrkala tenuis
Yirrkala tenuis is a skinny little snake eel that spends a lot of its time tucked into sand or soft bottom, with just the head poking out when it feels like it. It is a Western Indian Ocean species (Red Sea area down to South Africa, plus islands like Mauritius and Reunion), and it can get surprisingly long for how "thin" it looks - over 50 cm.
Thompson's poacher
Freemanichthys thompsoni
Freemanichthys thompsoni is a temperate, demersal marine poacher (family Agonidae) from the northwestern Pacific, reported from roughly 10–300 m depth and reaching about 22 cm total length. Because it is a coldwater/deeper-water species, it is rarely suitable for typical tropical marine aquaria and would require specialized chilled, high-oxygen systems if kept.
Thracian shemaya
Alburnus istanbulensis
Endemic to Turkey, occurring in coastal streams of Thrace (Marmara to SW Black Sea drainages) and Lake Sapanca; a small, silvery pelagic cyprinid (bleak/shemaya type).
Threadfin rainbowfish
Iriatherina werneri
This is the little rainbowfish with the ridiculous, delicate streamers - especially on the males, who love to posture and "dance" at each other in a calm planted tank. Keep them in a real group and they get way braver, cruising the top/midwater under floaters and showing off those thread-like fins. They are peaceful, but they really hate fast flow and rough tankmates that shred fins or outcompete them at feeding time.
Three-lined aphyosemion (three-lined killifish)
Aphyosemion trilineatus
Aphyosemion trilineatus is a small West African killifish from Cameroon that does best in a calm, plant-heavy setup with gentle filtration and a tight lid (they can jump). Males top out around 5.1 cm and look way flashier than females, and like most Aphyosemion they are happiest when you keep things on the soft, slightly acidic side and do changes slowly.
Three-spined stickleback
Gasterosteus aculeatus
The three-spined stickleback is a small, armored fish with bony lateral plates and three prominent dorsal spines used for defense. Males become striking in breeding condition, often developing a red throat/belly and intensified coloration while they build and guard nests. It is highly active and behaviorally interesting, but can be nippy and territorial, especially during breeding.
Three-spot righteye flounder
Samariscus triocellatus
This is a tiny little Indo-Pacific flounder that lives right on sand and rubble around reefs, and it can be ridiculously hard to spot once it settles in. The coolest part is the three eye-like spots (ocelli) and the way it kind of creeps along the bottom hunting small benthic critters at dusk.
Tidepool snailfish
Liparis florae
This is a little coldwater snailfish that literally lives in tide pools on exposed Pacific coast rock, hiding under algae and stones when the surf is crashing. It has that classic soft, tadpole-ish snailfish look and a suction-disk belly, so it can cling in place instead of getting tossed around. Super cool fish biologically, but it is absolutely not a normal home-aquarium species unless youre set up for a chilled marine system.
Tidewater mojarra
Eucinostomus harengulus
Tidewater mojarras are those sleek, silvery little estuary fish with the crazy-protrusible mouth they use to pick and vacuum tiny critters out of sand and mud. They show up around seagrass, mangroves, and shallow muddy flats, and theyll even push up into lower-salinity creeks and tributaries when conditions are right.
Tiger watchman goby
Valenciennea wardii
This is one of those classic sand-sifting sleeper gobies that will stay busy all day taking mouthfuls of sand, picking out tiny foods, and spitting the clean sand back out. Super chill temperament, but it really wants a mature tank with a real sandbed so it can do its thing without slowly starving. Also heads-up: they can redecorate by burying frags and making little bulldozer trenches.
Tigerfish
Rhamphochromis longiceps
This is one of Lake Malawi's sleek, open-water predator haps - long, torpedo-shaped, and built to chase down smaller fish. Adults can get a cool greenish metallic sheen on the back and mature males may look more bluish-grey, plus the females are classic mouthbrooders.
Timid lamprologine cichlid
Neolamprologus timidus
This is a Lake Tanganyika rock-cave cichlid that acts exactly like its name - it tends to be shy and hangs in hard-to-reach caves, often even sitting upside down under overhangs. It tops out around 10 cm and is more of a "pair with a cave" fish than a busy open-water swimmer, so the whole setup is about rocks, shadows, and stable Tanganyika water.
Tom Coon's orestias
Orestias tomcooni
Orestias tomcooni is a little high-altitude killifish from the Lake Titicaca basin, built for chilly, oxygen-rich water. It is one of those super-niche Andean natives you almost never see in the trade, and the big "gotcha" is that it wants cool temps long-term, not a standard tropical setup.
Tombigbee darter
Etheostoma lachneri
This is a tiny Gulf Coastal Plain darter from the Tombigbee drainage, and the males get seriously wild in breeding colors - green/turquoise with orange and blue patterning. In the wild they hang around that stream transition zone from pools into riffles, sticking close to the bottom around sand-gravel, rubble, and snag cover. Think of it as a little bottom-perching insect-hunter that really wants clean, well-oxygenated flowing water.