Seven Colorful Aquarium Fishes with Unique Fins

The fishes on the list below are popular aquarium pets due to their bright coloration, unique appearance and flamboyant display of fins making them unique aquatic pets.

Red Lionfish:

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The Red Lionfish (Pterois volitans) is a beautiful and colorful coral reef fish with extravagantly pretty fins. The pectoral fin of this venomous beauty is presented in a distinctive fan-like shape. The dorsal spines of this species that can grow up to 43 cm long are separated and enormously long. The fish is also characterized by fleshy tentacles that protrude from both above the eyes and below the mouth.

Zebra Lionfish

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The Zebra Lionfish (Dendrochirus zebra), which is also known as Zebra Turkeyfish, is a uniquely beautiful fish with venomous spines. This carnivorous ray-finned fish inhabits the tropical waters of Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean. This scorpionfish that can grow up to 24 cm uses its venomous spines to defend itself. Peaceful and slow-moving, but dangerous, this solitary fish who is not afraid of anything like to rest in dark areas like under a rock or a piece of coral.

Broadbarred Firefish

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Broadbarred Firefish (Pterois antennata) is a colorful fish with beautifully long fins and spines. It inhabits the tropical waters of the Western Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean. This unique-looking creature which is also well-known aquarium fish can grow up to 20 cm in length. This venomous marine animal prefers to live in lagoons and reefs. It hides during daytime and hunts crabs and shrimps during night time.

Blackfoot Lionfish

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Blackfoot Lionfish (Parapterois heterura) is a colorful but venomous scorpionfish. This notable ray-finned species occasionally makes its way into aquarium trade. It can reach a maximum length of 23 cm.

Devil Firefish

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Devil Firefish (Pterois miles), more popularly known as Common Lionfish, is oftentimes mistaken for the Red Lionfish, its close relative. This fish with a gorgeous display of fins and spines can reach a length of up to 35 cm. its dorsal fins are feathery and its pectoral fins are like wings. This dangerous fish due to its highly venomous spines inhabits lagoons and outer slope of coral reefs of the Indian Ocean, Mediterranean and Red Sea.

Twinspot Lionfish

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The Twinspot Lionfish (Dendrochirus biocellatus) is a beautifully-colored lionfish species with unique fins that look like wings. The Twinspot Lionfish occasionally makes its way into the aquarium trade. This beautiful but somehow peculiar-looking fish is also commonly known as Fu Manchu Lionfish and Twospot Turkeyfish.

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The Flying Gurnard (Dactylopterus volitans) is one of the most beautiful and unique sea creatures, This fish that inhabits tropical to warm temperate waters of the Atlantic Ocean looks spectacular with its wings. When the fish is in normal condition it is box-shaped in appearance and appears like a normal fish, but when it gets excited, the fish spreads its semi-transparent wings tipped with a beautiful and phosphorescent bright blue coloration. Its eyes are large like Pufferfish.

Check out:
Seven Colorful Aquarium Fishes with Unique Fins Part 2

22 thoughts on “Seven Colorful Aquarium Fishes with Unique Fins

  1. ems

    looks like they came from the same family! lol! I remembered the game "Nemo's Reef", these fishes especially the lion fish is one of the most famous.

  2. Cheerful

    they all look lovely. over the weekend, we just went to Siam Ocean World, kids had fun looking at those sea creatures…I am sure we saw these beauties. 🙂 anyway, we only have gold fish in our tank now, we used to have telescope fish to start but died later on.

  3. Mhie Lee

    I seen most of them in the aquarium here.The one that I never seen is the twinspot lionfish.There are all cutie..

  4. nova hedges

    I've noticed the similarities they have were the spikey… looks so adorable yet very throny too.

  5. Chubskulit Rose

    Absolutely beautiful. Pwede bang tawaging nagpifiest ng kadayawan yung mga yan at ang gaganda ng suot hehehe.

  6. Teresa Martinez

    The flying gurnard is indeed beautiful although the others look a little bit scary on close up.

  7. Sarah Jean

    Me and my husband are really fond of aquariums. There is this one time, we had about 5 aquariums in the house because of our fascination to aquarium fishes and fighting fish. When we had a chance to snorkeling in the lagoons of El Nido, I was hoping to find some aquarium fishes under the sea and luckily I found Nemo…heehehe sad to say, I could not take him home.

  8. Algene May C.

    Ang pinakamaganda sa lahat is the flying gurmand. May aquarium kami before before since busy na kami ng brother ko, we gave up on taking good care of our pet fish 🙂

  9. Jean

    It is indeed true that the sea is a fantasy. With these creatures, they reflect how beautiful it is UNDER though you can usually see them in an acquarium.

  10. cheerful

    must be really nice to see these colourful fish in one tank, my kids will sure had fun watching them. our tank is bit boring, we only have gold fish. hehehe! thanks for sharing. 🙂

  11. kulasa

    wow…they are all so pretty!!!!! of course I would not want to eat those kinds of fishes…they are too beautiful to eat 🙂 it would be awesome to see them in person and watch them swimming…what a wonderful world it is…thanks for another set of amazing animals 🙂

  12. Wes Ornick

    Fish are truly wonderful and we know more about the moon than we do about oceans and the life within…so many various species and some that just dont fall into one category. Caring for fish can get extremely expensive and the know-how is as well. freshwater to saltwater caring is like black and white compared to color photography development. B/W is a lot easier and cheaper but a lot of steps and any fault of a myriad of variables can alter/destroy the end product and you will never know until the end process/result. Saltwater care is not just temperature and light sensitive. There are the proper plants and other life that needs to be there to associate and benefit the life of the fish in the tank. Size is crucial as well as filters, changing them…really takes a scientist to check all the chemical changes as fish are very sensitive, one degree or off by a few degrees of pH can do them in and a costly replacement and investment but they are truly beautiful to study and learn about. they have amazing adaptations and poisons, defense that can truly harm humans as well…

  13. Selvam R Nath

    Natures art is the variation in diversity and appearance of the organisms. Oceans have a high variety of diversity of organisms with natural artistic appearance, especially the corals and coral fishes.

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