Fish are the most diverse vertebrate group on the planet — with over 35,000 species — but the social lives of only a tiny fraction of them have ever been formally described. Much of what is known about how fish interact, group, compete, cooperate, or care for offspring exists only in the lived experience of researchers, fishers, aquarists, naturalists, and Indigenous communities. Most of this knowledge has never been published, meaning it remains inaccessible to science.

ShoalBase is a community-driven scientific resource dedicated to bringing this hidden knowledge together.

We connect researchers, students, fishers, naturalists, aquarists, and citizen scientists to build the first open, global database of fish social behaviour — one that captures not only scientific studies, but also the everyday expertise of people who spend time around fish.

Our goal is to make valuable observations of fish social behaviours and systems — whether from controlled experiments, long-term fieldwork, casual encounters, local ecological knowledge, or home aquaria — visible and accessible to everyone interested in how fish interact, cooperate, compete, form groups, and navigate their environments.

By pooling our collective knowledge, ShoalBase will help researchers to:

• identify patterns across species

• test evolutionary and ecological hypotheses

• improve welfare and husbandry practices

• highlight overlooked species and behaviours

• generate new collaborative research opportunities

Every record strengthens the foundation for future discovery through open science and global participation. This project grows through community participation. If you’ve observed fish, you have something valuable to contribute!