Welcome to the world of fishes!

FishBase is a global biodiversity information system on finfishes. From its initial goal to provide key facts on population dynamics for 200 major commercial species, FishBase has now grown to having a wide range of information on all species currently known in the world: taxonomy, biology, trophic ecology, life history, and uses, as well as historical data reaching back to 250 years.

At present, FishBase covers >35,800 fish species compiled from >63,000 references in partnership with 2,550 collaborators, >330,300 common names and >65,100 pictures. Our website gathers more than 700,000 visits monthly.

The breadth and depth of information in the database, combined with the analytical and graphical tools available in the web, cater to different needs of diverse groups of stakeholders (scientists, researchers, policy makers, fisheries managers, donors, conservationists, teachers and students). Its various applications aim for sustainable fisheries management, biodiversity conservation and environmental protection.

FishBase is currently hosted by the Quantitative Aquatics, Incorporated (Q-quatics), a non-stock, non-profit, non-governmental organization engaged in the development and management of global databases on aquatic organisms, including their distribution and ecology. It is scientifically guided by a Consortium of 12 international members.

Announcements

Dean Bibliography

2024-08-31

Call for participation in a recently launched project to integrate the monumental Dean's Bibliography of Fishes into the references of FishBase. The references can be searched separately in the References search. Thanks to ECoF and BHL. Work in progress.

Bleeker Publication

2024-08-31

The separate list of the Bleeker's publications on fishes is available through the References search. Thanks to BHL.

Maturity-Gill rel

2024-08-31

A new table on the relationship between the first maturity and the respiration in fishes has been created with almost 500 records. Learn more in the FishBase Book. Work in progress.

ECoF

2024-08-31

Most of the new species names until May 2024 were added from the Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes (ECoF). When no additional information is entered in FishBase yet, there is a redirection to the species account in ECoF.

Eponym

2024-08-31

The etymology of genera and species were enriched with the first sentence for each eponym account from the book by Beolens et al. (2023; Ref. 128868). Some redundancies may appear with the text from EtyFish that will be removed in the next update. Work in progress.

FishBase Guide

2024-01-24

Explore the FishBase Guide, an Android app to show minimum and maximum length of fish and other info of use to producers, consumers and all fish lovers. Sponsored by Mundus maris asbl, Fair Fish International and Sea Around Us. Download the latest update. Learn more