This is perhaps one of the shorter lists in our A-Z of fish names, there just aren’t all that many fish that start with the letter I. Of course, you can name your pet fish Iain, Ivan, Ilona or even Ickle-Baby-Fish if you really wanted to!
If you can see any common fish names beginning with I that we might have missed, then please do let us know so we can keep a super updated list with all of your faves. We’ve included the common and scientific names of each fish so you can see how many common names are nothing like their official Latin ones.
These scientific names usually hint at how the fish looks, moves or acts and sometimes where the fish is from. The genus of the scientific name always has a capital letter and it is a little like a surname, but the species name does not need a capital letter and is a bit like a forename. In the fish world, many fall into the Corydoras genus but they are identified even further by their species e.g. rabouti, adolfoi, serratus or similis to name just a few.
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Our Top 3 Fish Names Beginning with Letter I
Even with slim pickings, we’re still going to delve into talking about a few of these amazing underwater creatures. We’ve chosen 3 of our favorites to tell you about in a little more detail.
Ice Blue Red Top Zebra (Metriaclima greshakei)
Also known as William’s Mbuna, this cichlid should be kept with other species under the Mbuna umbrella as they can be a little aggressive and territorial. It is recommended to only keep one male with many females unless you have a considerably large tank. Males are usually colorful with orange/red fins, but the females tend to be grey in coloring, so if you want a bright multicolored aquarium, you may want to look at other fish types.
Ice Blue Red Top Zebra fish should be fed mainly vegetable matter with a few pieces of live food such as brine shrimp every once in a while – this will keep them healthy and happy. Keep feeding times to 30 second increments, as these cichlids have a tendency to keep on eating if they get the chance.
Indian Glassfish (Parambassis ranga)
If you have been keeping up with our fish name A-Z, then you may have seen Glass Catfish in our Fish that Start with G post, which has a very similar see-through body to these Indian Glassfish. Like the aforementioned catfish, these Glassfish can be kept in community tanks and are pretty peaceful fish – tank mates could include Dwarf Rainbowfish or Cherry Barbs.
These ghostly fishies like to have somewhere to hide when they are in a tank, so provide them with plants or covered areas so they can become even more invisible than they already (almost) are!
Iridescent Shark (Pangasius hypophthalmus)
Sharks are cool already, but an Iridescent Shark – super cool!!! We love the shifting, oil-slick coloration on these fish. Sadly, these fish are sold in their juvenile form with little information on how big they can actually get. They are a challenging fish to keep and perhaps should be left to the professional aquarists and public, large-scale aquariums.
Iridescent Sharks like to be kept in groups as they can startle easily when alone… so a large tank is so so necessary. They also prefer the quiet and like to feed at night. We wouldn’t recommend keeping these fish unless you have an expansive pond or tank in which to keep them.
List of fish names starting with I
Below we have our short lists of both freshwater and saltwater fish for you to peruse. Sadly, there are not all that many, but there are some really cool ones, so we hope you enjoy researching them.
If we’ve missed out your favorite, pop us a comment to let us know so we can keep our list as complete as possible.
Freshwater fish beginning with I:
- Ide (Leuciscus idus)
- Ilisha (Tenualosa ilisha)
- Inanga (Galaxias maculatus)
- Inconnu (Stenodus nelma)
- Indian Spiny Loach (Lepidocephalichthys thermalis)
- Inexpectatum Pleco (Hypoptopoma inexpectatum)
Saltwater fish beginning with I:
- Icefish (Chionodraco hamatus)
