The Rainbow Fish is a children's picture book drawn and written by Swiss author and illustrator Marcus Pfister; it was translated into English by J. Alison James. The book is best known for the distinctive shiny foil scales of the Rainbow Fish. Decode Entertainment turned the story into an animated television series of the same name, which aired on the HBO Family television channel in the United States and Teletoon in Canada from 1999 until 2000.