Pierre Carbonnier, (7 August 1828 – 8 April 1883) was a French scientist, ichthyologist, fish breeder and public aquarium director.

The first shipment of tropical fish species was brought to Europe by a naval officer named Gérault at the request of Eugène Simon, French Consul in Ningbo of Zhejiang Province in the southeast of China.

The same year he wrote the brochure "Report and observations about the pairing of one kind of Chinese fish" (French: Rapport et Observations sur l'accouplement d'une espèce de poisson de Chine; 1869), and a year later "The new remark on the Chinese fish belonging to the genus makropody" (French: Nouvelle Note sur un poisson de Chine appartenant au genre macropode; 1870), among others.

In 1874 Carbonnier imported the first Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens) and Dwarf gourami (Colisa lalia).

[4] At the International Exhibition of sea and river industries in Paris in 1875, Carbonnier was awarded the Gold Medal of the French Imperial Society of Acclimatization for research and breeding of freshwater aquarium of exotic fish and his success of introducing exotic fish species to France.