FishBase 2000
A Global Information System on Fishes

Welcome to the world of fishes!
FishBase is a global biodiversity information system on finfishes. Its initial goal to provide key facts on population dynamics for 200 major commercial species 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 >35,700 fish species compiled from >62,000 references in partnership with >2,530 collaborators: >330,100 common names and >64,800 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 13 international members (see below).

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With the help of >2,000 collaborators we update the database daily (internally), and bimonthly on the website. FishBase provides the database and web interface for free for 25 years thanks to a full-time dedicated team. However, we lack recurrent funding to maintain the information system up to date both in content and technological innovation. We gratefully acknowledge financial contribution to continue the service of this open resource.

Main Data statistics as of June 2024
Note: The first number is the number of species, and the number inside the parenthesis is the number of records.

Additional Statistics

35,729 Species in 5,239 genera, 624 families, 84 orders, 10 classes
102,732 Synonyms with 94,916 synonyms and 7,816 misapplied names
330,105 Common names for 29,751 species in 258 "countries" in 353 languages
194,912 Reports in countries for 35,071 species in 304 "countries"
160,334 Reports in ecosystems for 32,962 species in 1,299 "ecosystems"
63,386 Reports in FAO areas for 35,701 species in 26 FAO areas
21,771 Species with morphology of which 18,426 have a short textual description
13,306 Morphometric ratio records for 11,686 species
1,687 Identification keys for 8,226 species
34,234 References used and 22,570 not used yet
~3.3 million Records in total in ~200 tables (~60 main)
For more info, see Fish Statistics.

We're Fishing for Fish Photos

We are looking for fish photos. Learn how to become a collaborator by contributing pictures to FishBase See complete list of missing pictures.

We're Fishing for Maximum Lengths

We are looking for reported maximum length in literature. Please help us by providing references, preferably in PDF format.Technical reports and documents are appreciated as well. See complete list of species for which we are missing maximum length. Or download TXT file.


FishBase Consortium

The FishBase Consortium is the scientific advisory body of Q-quatics.



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FishBase Web Stats

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