Species of Fish

The African pompano (Alectis ciliaris), also known as the pennant-fish or threadfin trevally, is a widely distributed species of tropical marine fish in the jack family, Carangidae. The species is found in tropical waters worldwide, with adults often inhabiting coastlines, while juveniles are usually pelagic, floating with ocean currents. The adu...

Alligator Gar is a large freshwater fish found in North America. It is one of the largest freshwater fishes in North America. The world record for hook and line is 279 pounds and came from the Rio Grande River, Texas on December 2, 1951. The largest ever caught in a net was 8 feet long and weighed 327 pounds. The body of the alligator gar is lo...

Almaco jack is a game fish of the family Carangidae; they are in the same family as yellowtail and amberjack. They feed, both day and night, on other, smaller, fish, such as baitfish and small squid. The flesh is thick and dense like tuna and can easily pass for white albacore if prepared as sushi. The Almaco jack has a less elongated, more fla...

The American shad  is a species of anadromous fish distributed from southern Labrador to northern Florida. American shad are in family Clupeidae of order Clupeiformes. They are not closely related to the other North American shads. Rather, it seems to form a lineage that diverged from a common ancestor of the European taxa before these diver...

Arctic char is a cold-water fish in the family Salmonidae, native to alpine lakes and arctic and subarctic coastal waters. It breeds in fresh water, and populations can either be landlocked or anadromous, migrating to the sea. No other freshwater fish is found as far north; it is, for instance, the only fish species in Lake Hazen on Ellesmere Isl...

Cod is the common name for the genus Gadus of demersal fishes, belonging to the family Gadidae. Cod is also used as part of the common name for a number of other fish species, and there are species suggested to belong to genus Gadus that are not called cod (the Alaska pollock). The two most important species of cod are the Atlantic cod (Gadus mo...

Atlantic croaker are about 12 inches (30 cm) long and weigh 1/2 to 2 pounds (226 g to 0.9 kg) on average. Its distinguishing characteristics include three to five pairs of small barbels or "whiskers" on their chins to help them feel for food on the sea floor; a lateral line that extends to the tip of its caudal (tail) fin; inferior mout...

The Atlantic mackerel (Scomber scombrus), also known as Boston mackerel, Norwegian mackerel, Scottish mackerel, is a species of mackerel found in the temperate waters of the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea, and the northern Atlantic Ocean, where it is extremely common and occurs in huge schools in the pelagic zone down to about 200 m (660 ft). I...

The Atlantic menhaden (Brevoortia tyrannus) is a North American species of fish in the herring family, Clupeidae. Atlantic menhaden are found in the North Atlantic coastal and estuarine waters from Nova Scotia south to northern Florida. They are commonly found in all salinities of the Chesapeake Bay and Mid-Atlantic water. They swim in large scho...

The Atlantic pomfret or Ray's bream (after naturalist, John Ray), Brama brama, is a pomfret of the family Bramidae, found in the Atlantic, Indian, and South Pacific Oceans, at depths down to 3,000 feet. Its length is between 15 and 40 inches.  Opportunistic feeder on small fishes, cephalopods, amphipods, and euphausiids.

The Australasian snapper or silver seabream, Pagrus auratus, is a species of porgie found in coastal waters of Australia, Philippines, Indonesia, China, Taiwan, Japan and New Zealand. Its distribution areas in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres are disjunct.[3] Although it is almost universally known in Australian and New Zealand as snapper, i...

The bar jack (Caranx ruber), also known as the carbonero, red jack, blue-striped cavalla or passing jack, is a common species of inshore marine fish classified in the jack family, Carangidae. The bar jack is distributed through the western Atlantic Ocean from New Jersey and Bermuda in the north to Venezuela and possibly Brazil in the south, with...

The Barramundi, also known as Asian seabass, is a species of catadromous fish in family Latidae of order Perciformes. This fish is of the same Genus as the Common Snook, which is found in the waters of Florida, Central and South America, the Caribbean and the South Atlantic. The native species is widely distributed in the Indo-West Pacific region...

The bigeye tuna, Thunnus obesus, is an important food fish and prized recreational game fish. It is a true tuna of the genus Thunnus, belonging to the wider mackerel family Scombridae. Bigeye tuna are found in the open waters of all tropical and temperate oceans, but not the Mediterranean Sea. The pectoral fins may reach to the second dorsa...

The black crappie, is a freshwater fish found in North America, one of the two crappies. It is very similar to the white crappie in size, shape, and habits, except that it is darker, with a pattern of black spots. Black crappies are most accurately identified by the seven or eight spines on its dorsal fin (white crappies have five or six dorsal sp...

The black drum (Pogonias cromis) is a saltwater fish similar to its cousin, the red drum. It is the only species in the genus Pogonias. Though most specimens are generally found in the 5-30 lb (2–14 kg) range, the black drum is well known as the largest of all the drum family with some specimens reaching excesses of 90 lbs (40 kg). The world...

Mycteroperca bonaci, the black grouper, black rockfish or marbled rockfish, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a grouper from the subfamily Epinephelinae which is part of the family Serranidae, which also includes the anthias and sea basses. This species is found in the western Atlantic Ocean from the northeastern United States to Brazil....

The black marlin is a species of marlin found in tropical and subtropical Indo-Pacific and east Pacific oceans from near the surface to depths of 915 m (3,002 ft). It is a large commercial game fish with a maximum published length of 4.65 m (15.3 ft) and weight of 750 kg (1,700 lb). It is one of the largest marlins and bony fish. This marlin is one...

The black sea bass is a type of Grouper (Serranidae) found more commonly in northern than in southern ranges. It inhabits the coasts from Maine to NE Florida and the eastern Gulf of Mexico. There are three large biomass populations of black sea bass—the Mid-Atlantic stock, from Cape Cod in Massachusetts to Cape Hatteras in North Carolina, t...

The blackbelly rosefish, Helicolenus dactylopterus, is a marine bony fish from the family Sebastidae, also known as bluemouth rockfish, and bluemouth seaperch. This Atlantic species is a typical sit-and-wait predator with a highly cryptic coloration. Helicolenus dactylopterus is widely distributed in the Atlantic Ocean. In the west, it ranges f...

Blackfin tuna is the smallest tuna species in the Thunnus genus, generally growing to a maximum of 100 centimetres (39 in) in length and weighing 21 kg (46 lbs). Blackfin have oval shaped bodies, black backs with a slight yellow on the finlets, and have yellow on the sides of their body. Blackfin are only found in the western Atlantic from Cape...

The blue catfish is one of the largest species of North American catfish reaching a length of 165 centimetres (65 in). Blue catfish are distributed primarily in the Mississippi River drainage including the Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, and Arkansas rivers. These large catfish have also been introduced in a number of reservoirs and rivers, notably the...

The Atlantic blue marlin (Makaira nigricans) is a species of marlin endemic to the Atlantic Ocean. The blue marlin (hereafter, marlin) feeds on a wide variety of organisms near the surface. By using its bill, it can stun, injure, or kill while knifing through a school of prey and then return later at its leisure to eat. Marlin is a popular game f...

The Blue Runner (Caranx crysos), also known as the bluestripe jack, Egyptian scad, hardtail jack or hardnose, is a common species of moderately large marine fish classified in the jack family, Carangidae. The blue runner is distributed across the Atlantic Ocean, ranging from Brazil to Canada in the western Atlantic and from Angola to Great Britai...

The Blue Shark is a species of requiem shark, in the family Carcharhinidae, that inhabits deep waters in the world's temperate and tropical oceans. Preferring cooler waters, blue sharks migrate long distances, such as from New England to South America.  Although generally lethargic, they can move very quickly. Blue sharks are viviparous and...

The Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) is a species of tuna in the Scombridae family. It is variously known as the northern bluefin tuna (mainly when including Pacific bluefin as a subspecies), giant bluefin tuna (for individuals exceeding 150 kilograms or around 330 pounds) and formerly as the tunny.   Atlantic bluefin are native t...

The bluefish, called tailor in Australia, is a species of popular marine gamefish found in all climates. It is the only extant species of the Pomatomidae family. The bluefish is a moderately proportioned fish, with a broad, forked tail. The spiny first dorsal fin is normally folded back in a groove, as are its pectoral fins. Coloration is a gray...

The bluegill or bluegulli occurs naturally in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains from coastal Virginia to Florida, west to Texas and northern Mexico, and north from western Minnesota to western New York. Today they have been transported most everywhere else in North America, and have also been introduced into Europe, South Africa, Asia...

The blueline tilefish is a dull olive-gray overall and white below. The lack of fleshy protuberance behind the head distiguishes it from the commercially important tilefish, Lopholatilus chamaeleonticeps. Elongate, continuous dorsal and anal fins more than half the length of body, long snout, narrow gold stripe underlined in blue from snout to ti...