Fish Kaomoji

Q: What does <>< mean?

A fish in three keyboard characters. Wikipedia's list of emoticons records <> <> as fish, something's fishy, and ichthys, the Christian fish symbol whose name is ancient Greek for fish. Thirteen forms here are in that list; the other 64 were assembled here.

Tap a fish to copy it: 77 built from brackets and a tail, with squid, crabs and sharks alongside.

Fish Kaomoji

>°)))彡Open mouth, three scales, brush tail6 code pointsReady to copy

77 fish kaomoji. Tap one to copy it.

One fish 20

Fish with a mood 12

Bubbles, waves and bowls 9

Schools and pairs 8

Gone fishing 9

Bones and skewers 4

Squid, crabs and other swimmers 15

Next step Bigger fish, drawn over several lines

How it works

A fish kaomoji is a nose, an eye, some scales and a tail on one line. Here are 77 in seven groups, and a tap copies one. The brush tail 彡 is a Chinese character meaning bristle.

Read the full guide

Pick a fish, tap it

Tap any tile and the fish is on your clipboard. The groups go by what is in the picture: one fish, a fish with a mood, water around it, a school, someone fishing, bones, and other swimmers. Search reads the labels and a few extra words: squid finds three, crab four, goldfish three, bones two.

Which way it swims

The nose points the way it goes, and most here go left. Swims right keeps the 7 single creatures that face the other way. Short keeps the 17 of 6 code points or fewer. 22 entries are plain keyboard characters, <>< among them. Two borrow a Kannada letter for an eye, and the label under each says so.

Tips

A mood comes from the eye alone: ^ is pleased, - is asleep, x is done for, @ is dizzy.
For a signature, ¸.·´¯`·.¸><(((º> trails a wave, and all 16 characters sit in the first 256 of Unicode.
<>< <>< ><> is a school of three with one going the wrong way, for the group chat.

Questions and answers

What is the 彡 on the end of a fish kaomoji?

The tail. 彡 is CJK ideograph U+5F61, which Wikipedia's article Radical 59 gives as bristle or beard, three strokes. The same article says katakana ミ looks like it turned round, so ミ(((°< swims the other way. 15 entries here use 彡.

What does <>< mean?

A fish in three keyboard characters. Wikipedia's list of emoticons records <>< and ><> as fish, something's fishy, and ichthys, the Christian fish symbol whose name is ancient Greek for fish. Thirteen forms here are in that list; the other 64 were assembled here.

How do I make a fish swim the other way?

Reverse the order and swap each bracket for its opposite: <°)))>< becomes ><(((°>. For the 彡 tail, the right-facing one uses katakana ミ instead. The ◉ in <◉)))>< needs no swap, and its official Unicode name is Fisheye.

All 77 fish kaomoji

One fish 20

(°))<< Round head, two scales, double tail
<')))>< Apostrophe eye, keyboard only
<*)))-{ Asterisk eye, forked tail on a stalk
<>< Three keyboard characters
<°)))))))>< Seven scales, long body
<°)))>< Degree sign eye, bracket tail
<°)))≋ Tail like a ripple, fancy goldfish
<°)))彡 Pointed nose, brush tail
<°)>< One scale, small fry
<◉)))>< Eye is the character named Fisheye
<・)))><< Dot eye, double bracket tail
><((('> Apostrophe eye, keyboard, turned round
><(((*> Asterisk eye, keyboard only
><(((º> Ordinal mark eye, bracket tail
><> Three keyboard characters, turned round
>°))))))彡 Open mouth, six scales, long
>°)))彡 Open mouth, three scales, brush tail
>°))彡 Open mouth, two scales, small
ζ°)))彡 Zeta for a gaping mouth
ミ(((°< Open mouth, tail of katakana mi

Show all 77 fish kaomoji (57 more)

Fish with a mood 12

<-)))>< Eye shut, drifting
<@)))>< Spiral eye, dizzy
<^)))>< Caret eye, pleased with itself
<`)))>< Slanted eye, cross
<ಠ)))>< Disapproving eye. Borrows ಠ from Kannada.
<ಥ)))>< Teary eye. Borrows ಥ from Kannada.
<◕)))>< Big shiny eye, hopeful
<♡)))>< Heart for an eye
>°ロ°)))彡 Two eyes and a square mouth, aghast
<O)))>< Wide eye, startled
<x)))>< X for an eye, belly up soon
<-)))>< zzz Eye shut, with the snoring

Bubbles, waves and bowls 9

( ~ <>< ~ ) In a bowl, water each side
<º)))><¸.·´¯`·.¸ Wave trail behind, heading left
|~ <>< ~ ><> ~| Tank with two fish passing
~~~<°)))><~~~ Tildes for water, fore and aft
¸.·´¯`·.¸><(((º> Wave trail behind, heading right
Ψ <>< Ψ Between two fronds of weed
≈≈><(((°>≈≈ Ripples of almost equal signs
～～～>°)))彡 Fullwidth waves ahead
○o。>°)))彡 Three bubbles, small to large

Schools and pairs 8

<>< <>< <>< School of three
<>< <>< ><> School of three, one going the wrong way
<>< <°)))>< Small one with a big one behind it
<°)))>< <>< <>< Big one leading two small
><(((°> <°)))>< Two big ones, face to face
><> <>< Nose to nose
><> ♡ <>< Nose to nose, heart between
>°)彡 >°))彡 >°)))彡 Small, medium and large

Gone fishing 9

(っ°▽°)っ <>< Trying to grab one by hand
¿ <°)))>< Eyeing a hook
(≧▽≦)o/￣~<°)))>< Got a bite, delighted
( ˘ω˘)o/￣￣~ Dozing, nothing biting
(;´Д`)o/￣￣~ <>< All that for a small one
(°ロ°)o/￣￣~ >°))))))))彡 Hooked something far too big
( ・_・)o/￣￣~ >°)))彡 Blank face, fish on the line
( ´ー`)o/￣￣~¿ Line out, hook showing
ヽ(^o^)ノ <°)))>< Arms up beside the catch

Bones and skewers 4

<°###>< Hash marks, as if off the grill
━<°)))><━ On a skewer
<x+++>< Plus signs for a bare spine
<x‡‡‡>< Double daggers for ribs

Squid, crabs and other swimmers 15

(:◎)≡ Octopus, round mouth, legs trailing
(\/)(°,,°)(\/) Crab, pincers made of slashes
(^^^) Shark, three carets for teeth
<コ:彡 Squid with an angle bracket fin
>°)～～～ Eel, a head and a long wave
~~~/|~~~ Fin above the water
°⌒<`)))>< Anglerfish, lure arching ahead
∈(°◎°)∋ Fish seen head on, fins out
≧(° °)≦ Crab, claws of greater and less than
━<°)))彡 Swordfish, heavy line for a bill
くコ:彡 Squid from hiragana ku and katakana ko
くコ:彡。。。 Squid, dots trailing after it
Ｃ:.ミ Octopus with a fullwidth C for a head
V.v.V Crab in five keyboard characters
V=(° °)=V Crab, claws on stalks

How this list was compiled: Built by script on 2026-09-19, not typed into the page by hand. The 77 entries are this site's own selection and arrangement. Most were put together for this page from the parts a one-line fish is made of (a nose or mouth, an eye, scales, a tail). 13 are forms recorded in Wikipedia's List of emoticons (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emoticons, read 2026-09-19): the fish ><>, <><, <*)))-{ (there with a non-breaking hyphen) and ><(((*> (with the meanings fish, something's fishy and ichthys), >°)))彡, <°)))彡, >°))彡 and (°))<<, the squid <コ:彡, the octopus Ｃ:.ミ, the crabs V.v.V and V=(° °)=V, and the shark (^^^). These are forms in common use that nobody owns. The labels, groups and order are our own. Every character of every entry was looked up in UnicodeData.txt, version 18.0.0 (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/UnicodeData.txt), and must be an assigned, visible character. Emoji are left out. Fisheye (U+25C9) is the official name of the eye in one entry. The tail 彡 is CJK unified ideograph U+5F61; Wikipedia's article Radical 59 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_59, read 2026-09-19) gives its meaning as bristle or beard, three strokes, and notes that katakana mi looks like it turned round. "Borrows" under an entry names each character from outside the blocks of punctuation, common symbols and Latin, Greek, Cyrillic and Japanese letters, with its script from Scripts.txt (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/Scripts.txt) or, for a Latin or common character, its block from Blocks.txt (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/Blocks.txt). "Is on the emoji list" names each character that has the Emoji property in emoji-data.txt, version 18.0 (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/emoji/emoji-data.txt). The chip "Swims right" holds each single creature whose nose points right. "Short" means 6 code points or fewer, spaces counted. Nothing here says how any one device draws an entry. Licence: own work