Fish That Start With P

17 fish Animals and nature Checked 9 Oct 2026

Here are 17 fish that start with P, 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.

P brings 17 fish. The piranha is the one every child wants to read about, a small meat-eating fish of South America. The pike, perch and pollock are better known to anglers and cooks.

The parrotfish has a beak-like mouth made of fused teeth, and the pufferfish, also listed as puffer, can blow itself up. The porcupine fish does something similar and raises its spines as it swells. For pet fans, the platy is a small fish from Mexico kept in aquariums. Pike perch and pickerel show how one fish name can borrow from another.

Fish starting with P: 17
Best known: pike, perch
Longest name: porcupine fish

Best-known fish that start with P

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

pike
perch
pollock
piranha
parrotfish
pufferfish

All fish that start with P

#	Name	What it is
1	parrotfish	gaudy tropical fishes with parrotlike beaks formed by fusion of teeth
2	perch	spiny-finned freshwater food and game fishes
3	permit	large game fish; found in waters of the West Indies
4	pickerel	any of several North American species of small pike
5	pike	any of several elongate long-snouted freshwater game and food fishes widely distributed in cooler parts of the northern...
6	pike perch	any of several pike-like fishes of the perch family
7	pilchard	small fishes found in great schools along coasts of Europe; smaller and rounder than herring
8	piranha	small voraciously carnivorous freshwater fishes of South America that attack and destroy living animals
9	plaice	large European food fish
10	platy	small stocky Mexican fish; popular aquarium fish
11	pollock	important food and game fish of northern seas (especially the northern Atlantic); related to cod
12	pomfret	deep-bodied sooty-black pelagic spiny-finned fish of the northern Atlantic and northern Pacific; valued for food
13	pompano	any of several deep-bodied food fishes of western Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico
14	porcupine fish	spines become erect when the body is inflated; worldwide in warm waters
15	porgy	important deep-bodied food and sport fish of warm and tropical coastal waters; found worldwide
16	puffer	any of numerous marine fishes whose elongated spiny body can inflate itself with water or air to form a globe
17	pufferfish	any of numerous marine fishes whose elongated spiny body can inflate itself with water or air to form a globe

Short fish with P

pike
perch
porgy
platy

Questions people ask

How many fish start with P?

This list has 17 fish starting with P, from well-known ones like pike, perch, pollock to rarer kinds.

What fish start with P?

Well-known examples are pike, perch, pollock, piranha, parrotfish, pufferfish.

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