Fish That Start With A

10 fish Animals and nature Checked 9 Oct 2026

Here are 10 fish that start with A, each with a one-line description so you can tell what it is. The best-known ones come first, then the full list in A to Z order.

Ten fish begin with A, and several end up on dinner plates. The anchovy is a small fish often canned or made into paste, and the albacore is the tuna behind most canned tuna. The alewife and the amberjack are food fish too.

For children, the angelfish and the anglerfish are the fun ones. The anglerfish has a wormlike lure on its head to attract prey, and it is listed again under the shorter name angler. The armored catfish of South America is covered in bony plates, and the angel shark has a broad, flat body.

Fish starting with A: 10
Best known: anchovy, albacore
Longest name: armored catfish

Best-known fish that start with A

The ones most people will recognise, good for school lists, quizzes and games.

anchovy
albacore
angelfish
anglerfish

All fish that start with A

#	Name	What it is
1	albacore	large pelagic tuna the source of most canned tuna
2	alewife	shad-like food fish that runs rivers to spawn; often salted or smoked; sometimes placed in genus Pomolobus
3	amberjack	any of several amber to coppery fork-tailed warm-water carangid fishes
4	anchovy	small herring-like plankton-eating fishes often canned whole or as paste; abundant in tropical waters worldwide
5	angel shark	sharks with broad flat bodies and winglike pectoral fins but that swim the way sharks do
6	angelfish	deep-bodied disk-shaped food fish of warmer western Atlantic coastal waters
7	angler	fishes having large mouths with a wormlike filament attached for luring prey
8	anglerfish	fishes having large mouths with a wormlike filament attached for luring prey
9	argentine	any of various small silver-scaled salmon-like marine fishes
10	armored catfish	South American catfish having the body covered with bony plates

Questions people ask

How many fish start with A?

This list has 10 fish starting with A, from well-known ones like anchovy, albacore, angelfish to rarer kinds.

What fish start with A?

Well-known examples are anchovy, albacore, angelfish, anglerfish.

Source: Princeton WordNet, a public dictionary database, reviewed by our editors to keep only clear, real members of the list. Meanings are short dictionary glosses.

See every letter on one page: fish A to Z