Top 10 Most Expensive Fish Ever Sold

Today we’re looking at the Top 10 Most Expensive Fish Ever Sold. Welcome to Interesting Article, the place where future billionaires come to get inspired. Thanks for visiting us as we submerge ourselves in a world of underwater luxury.

The most expensive fish in the world is the Bluefin Tuna, weighing 612 pounds. It sold for $3.1 million at a 2019 auction in Japan, marking the world record price for bluefin tuna.

Many fish are extraordinarily beautiful, while others represent the finest quality in seafood and cuisine, and some are just downright ugly. This list contains the top 10 most expensive fish ever purchased.

Some have been purchased as pets, while others have been used to make some of the most expensive sushi on the market. On the planet, the world of expensive fish is surprisingly large, with many celebrities having a deep appreciation for their scaly friends.

In fact, Madonna reportedly has an aquarium in her home worth upwards of four million dollars. Just in the aquarium.

Neptune Grouper fish
  • 📛Scientific Name: Epinephelus Akamai
  • 💵Price: $6,000
  • 🔰Coloring: Brown, green, and black
  • 🐟Size: Up to 2 meters

In our list, the 10th most expensive fish for eating is Neptune groupers, sold for $6,000 per fish. We start our list with one of the most enigmatic fish on the market. The Neptune grouper’s natural habitat is the depths of the Pacific Ocean, and by depths, we really mean deep.

The Neptune grouper is accustomed to living between 90 and 400 meters underwater. This is the main reason that it’s being sold for as much as six thousand dollars, since the fish naturally lives so deep in the ocean. Its body is used to the high level of pressure experienced; taking the fish out of this environment will kill it as a result.

The only way to get a live Neptune grouper into a fish tank in one home is by using specially designed compression tanks to capture transport and house. Conversely, a dead and apt hoon grouper will sell for less than $50 and can often appear in Japanese street food as a tasty treat.


Keeping a Neptune grouper as a pet requires an incredible amount of dedication as well as innumerable wealth.

Clarion Angel Fish
  • 📛Scientific Name: Pomacanthus clarionensi
  • 💵Price: $7,000
  • 🔰Coloring: Yellow, blue, and black
  • 🐟Size: Up to 40 cm

In our list, the 9th most expensive fish is Clarion angel fish sold for $7,000 per fish. This beautiful orange and brown fish is native to Mexico. Almost its entire wild population can be found around the RO via the Agra Gate Islands. They do not migrate and swim very slowly. As a result, they’ve been overfished by local fishermen hoping to make a quick buck for the last few decades.


Now their numbers have depleted to dangerously low levels, and regulations have come into place to protect them. It’s now completely illegal to catch any Clarion angelfish in their natural habitat. As a result, only those that are already in circulation on the buyer’s market are legally available for purchase.


It’s estimated that there are less than 1,000 of them in aquariums around the world. In such a way, Clarion angelfish rarely come onto the market anymore, and the last time it did, it was sold almost instantly for $7,000.

If you’re lucky enough to acquire one, they are relatively easy to look after because their diet doesn’t have any specific requirements, and as they are not migratory fish, the tank only needs to be set at one temperature all year round. Nonetheless, a healthy Clarion angelfish has become a huge asset in recent times.

Golden Basslet fish
  • 📛Scientific Name: Psuedoscarus Ginea
  • 💵Price: $8,000
  • 🔰Coloring: Yellow and orange
  • 🐟Size: Up to 50 cm

Golden basslet sold for $8,000 per fish in 2015. Koji Wada of Blue Harbour acquired an extremely rare juvenile golden basslet for $8,000, making it one of the most expensive fish in the world. Like the Neptune grouper, it can only be found at incredible depths native to the Indo-Pacific Ocean. This gorgeous swimmer has only been on the market since 2011.


It was first discovered by marine biologists and Pauli in 1860. Since then, it’s confused biologists who have found it difficult to classify its species correctly because so few of them have ever been caught. The fish itself is literally stunning in appearance.

8. Golden Basslet: $8,000


Some have described it as the ultimate goldfish, and unlike those poor goldfish you might win at some sketchy carnival, the golden basslet scales are so bright they can actually harm your retina. While we all know not to stare directly at them for a long period of time, the same rule, however, applies to this extraordinary fish.

Blade fin Basslet Fish
  • 📛Scientific Name: Epinephelus blacodes
  • 💵Price: $8,000
  • 🔰Color: Red and brown
  • 🐟Size: Up to 40 cm

The Blade-Fin Basslet sold for $11,000 per fish. This is the smallest fish on our list at just 3/4 of an inch in length, which means that pound for pound, this is easily the most expensive fish in the world.


The record sale price for a blade-fin basslet was set in 2015 by a private buyer who commissioned Aqua Touch to catch one for him. There have been no more than 20 private sales of blade-fin basslets in recorded history. when a The collector wishes to purchase one, but he must employ a company like Aqua Touch to go out and find one.

7. Blade fin Basslet: $11,000


The process of actually catching one is incredibly difficult and time-consuming, which helps to justify an astronomical price tag. Needless to say, one would really need an inextinguishable passion for collecting rare fish to get one of these into their private aquarium.

Like other fish on this list, it requires deep-sea divers to use special compression units in order to capture one alive and bring it safely back up to the surface.

Masked Angelfish Fish
  • 📛Scientific Name: Genicanthus personatus
  • 💵Price: $20,000
  • 🔰Color: Blue, yellow, and black
  • 🐟Size: Up to 25 cm

Masked angelfish were sold for $20k per fish. The masked angelfish is the least colorful out of all of the fish on this list, but certainly not the dullest. Its monochrome black and white scales give it a minimalist, highly distinguished beauty.


The face is covered in black except for the white around the mouth. There’s also one black stripe on the tail, native to the warm tropical oceans that surround the islands of Hawaii. The masked angelfish is rare beyond belief. The masked angelfish is also special. Because it’s a protogynous hermaphrodite, which means it starts life as a female but transforms into a male when it gets older.

Masked Angelfish: $20,000


Here we stand at the halfway point of this luxury aquatic list. If you like to read this article, then you might also want to check out some of our other top 10 countdowns, like the ##Top 10 most —–###. That’s highly recommended. Check it out by clicking below.

Peppermint angel fish
  • 📛Scientific Name: Centropyge bodier
  • 💵Price: $30,000
  • 🔰Color: Red, black, and white
  • 🐟Size: Up to 10 cm

Peppermint angelfish sold for $30,000 per fish are the very expensive peppermint angelfish. currently resides at Waikiki Aquarium in Hawaii. The owners of the aquarium paid $30,000 for it back in 2009 because it was believed to be the rarest species of angelfish on the planet.

However, more have been found in the eastern Pacific around the Cook Islands since then, which has driven the price down to the region of $19,000.

Peppermint angelfish: $30,000

Nevertheless, the Waikiki Aquarium angelfish still holds the fifth spot as the most expensive fish ever purchased. If a fish could have an attitude, this one would probably bulk at its cheaper relatives.

The peppermint angelfish generally lives in depths between 50 and 120 meters and spends most of its time hiding from predators in reefs.

Xingu River Ray fish
  • 📛Scientific Name: Potamotrygon Motoro
  • 💵Price: $100,000
  • 🔰Color: Black, and Brown
  • 🐟Size: Up to 1,5 meter

The Xingu River ray is sold for $100k per fish. This is the only freshwater fish on this list, popularly known as the Polka Dot Stingray. This fish is not to be confused with the avant-garde Japanese punk band; rather, the special stingray is one of the rarest and most highly sought-after specimens for any collector of water-dwelling species in the world, native to the Xingu River in Brazil.


A stingray patrols the river basin for snails and other invertebrates during the day. It will hide by burying itself in the sand. It has 360-degree vision and can see in the darkest depths of the deepest rivers. As a result, it becomes a deadly, stealthy night hunter.

Xingu River Ray fish


In 2014, the Vancouver Aquarium paid just over 100 thousand dollars to have the honor of housing the largest one ever found. The high price tag is owed to its rarity as well as the regulations placed on the transport of this species for commercial purposes.

They are not the easiest of the fish to feed and keep healthy within a tank because they have very high metabolisms and need a lot of room to move around.

platinum arowana fish
  • 📛Scientific Name: Scleropages Aureus
  • 💵Price: $400,000
  • 🔰Color: Sliver
  • 🐟Size: Up to 1 meter

Platinum arowana sold for $400,000 per fish among fish lovers, which makes this fish very expensive fish in the world. The Arowana family is renowned for their incredible beauty and distinct coloration. The platinum arowana is the most coveted of all arowana species. There are less than 20 of these around the world. They are so rare because their platinum color is actually the result of a recent genetic mutation.


Furthermore, it is absolutely prohibited to try and fish any more of these out of the ocean. Those that are currently housed in public or private aquariums must be sold with a certificate, and all of them have been inserted with a special microchip to ensure authenticity.

platinum arowana fish


They will grow to 3 feet in length and have been linked to samurai swords and appearances. Asian culture has been captivated by the majestic nature of this fish, and it’s said to bring good luck to all those who lay eyes on it at fish exhibitions around Japan.

China and Indonesia will have a platinum arowana as the centerpiece of any collection. Strangely enough, audiences have paid to watch cosmetic surgeries of platinum marijuana’s, such as eye lifts.

222-kilogram bluefin tuna
  • 📛Scientific Name: Thunnus thynnus
  • 💵Price: $1.8 Million
  • 🔰Color: Blue- Green
  • 🐟Size: Up to 3 Meters

222 kilograms of bluefin tuna were sold for 1.8 million dollars per fish in January 2013, making it the most expensive fish ever sold to eat. A representative from one of Tokyo’s most expensive fish to eat at a restaurant chains attended the Tsukiji market to enter into a bidding war for one of the largest bluefin tunas ever caught.


This is the only fish on this list to be sold dead with the purpose of being eaten by The wealthiest members of Tokyo’s high society are more of a publicity stunt than any type of sensible investment. This purchase hit headlines and shocked many people.


The buyer was Kyoshi Kimura, the owner of Zen My Sushi Chain, which claimed to be the first-ever 24-hour, seven-day, 365-day-a-year sushi restaurant in the world. Each tiny slice of sashimi from this colossal fish costs about $24.

red and white koi carp fish
  • 📛Scientific Name: Cyprinus Carpio
  • 💵Price: $2 Million
  • 🔰Color: Red and white
  • 🐟Size: Up to 30-40 cm

Red and white koi carp sold for two million dollars per fish, this become the most expensive fish in the world. Asian culture surrounding koi carp is a lot more like the breeding market. for pedigree dogs Koi carps are coveted animals that differ in value depending on the purity of their genes and the careful nature in which they are bred.

On October 3rd, 2018, a Taiwanese woman decided to buy a meter-long Koi carp for an incredible $2 million. The fish had been bred and reared by Saki Fish Farm in Hiroshima and gained attention amongst koi carp collectors for its perfect, unblemished red and white scales as well as its large size.


This particular Koi carp comes from the Kohaku variety, which is renowned as the pedigree genus. It can live for up to 25 years and will be able to produce around 5000 pedigree offspring in that time in such a way that, unlike many of these other fish on the list, purchasing this koi carp is seen to be very much an investment.

List of Top 10 Most Expensive Fish Ever Sold

If you’re new here, welcome. Be sure to bookmark this page and follow us on social media. So without any further deliberation, let’s just dive into our top 10 list of the most expensive fish The prices mentioned are the highest individual fees paid for a single fish.

RankFishPrice (USD)
1.Red and white koi carp$2 million
2.222-kilogram bluefin tuna$1.8 million
3.Platinum Arowana$400,000
4.Xingu River ray$100,000
5.Peppermint angelfish$30,000
6.Masked angelfish$20,000
7.Blade fin basslet$11,000
8.Golden basslet$8,000
9.Clarion angel fish$7,000
10,Neptune grouper$6,000

There you have it—the top 10 most expensive fish in the world. And because we’re always curious, here’s a question for you:

If money were no object, what would an aquarium in your home look like?

In 2016, Japan exported a record amount of Qui Carp. It sold over 295 metric tons to foreign buyers, which bolstered the Japanese economy by around 40 million dollars.

Thank you for spending some time with us, Lexer. Make sure to bookmark this page so you don’t miss the latest articles.

what is the world’s most expensive fish?

The most expensive fish in the world is the bluefin tuna, which can sell for up to $3.1 million.

what is the most expensive edible seafood?

The most expensive edible seafood is also the bluefin tuna, which can sell for up to $5,000 per pound.

what is the most expensive fish to keep?

The most expensive fish to keep is the Asian arowana, which can sell for up to $400,000.

Who caught the $3 million dollar tuna?

The most expensive edible seafood is also the bluefin tuna, which can sell for up to $5,000 per pound.

Which is the most expensive fish sold in India?

The most expensive fish sold in India is the hilsa, which can sell for up to $1,000 per pound.

What is the rarest fish in the world?

The rarest fish in the world is the vaquita, with only about 10 individuals left in the wild.

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