This study explored the influence of microhabitat characteristics, such as sandy, rocky and algal bottom, holes, area and depth, on tide-pool fish descriptors (evenness, total number of fish, diversity and species richness). Even when the rockpool microhabitats differed amongst beaches, the tidal fish assemblages were closely grouped by site rather than by characteristics of the tide pools. Fish assemblages were mostly represented by juvenile fishes from 29 species, of which 14 were observed in only one of the three sites. This indicates that sites, rather than microhabitat association, might play a major role for the rockpool ichthyofauna in north-east Brazil.