tropical fish

American

noun

any of numerous small, usually brightly colored fishes, indigenous to the tropics, and often kept and bred in home aquariums.

Etymology

Origin of tropical fish

First recorded in 1930–35

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

He then went on to run a successful business selling tropical fish in Tenerife.

From BBC • Mar. 11, 2025

The novel populations of tropical fish in temperate ecosystems are not having much of an impact now, but may do in the future.

From Science Daily • Apr. 23, 2024

The researchers demonstrated this by deleting genes linked to producing and absorbing oxytocin in the brains of zebrafish, a small tropical fish often used for research.

From Seattle Times • Mar. 23, 2023

He eats whatever he can scrounge up, including, at one point, tropical fish.

From Washington Post • Mar. 14, 2023

The coffee shop buzzed, college students mingling like showy tropical fish with their brightly colored hair.

From "When Dimple Met Rishi" by Sandhya Menon

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023