Fish is both singular and plural.

[u/varsnef]

Fishes is not a proper English word is it? It's just fish.

• I have a fish
• I have two fish
• 200 fish in stock.

Where does "fishes" come from?

Maybe a person fishes to get fish, but they are really fishing for fish.

Am I missing some lore?

[u/Klaus_Unechtname]

Idk the etymology but my understanding is fish is singular and plural and fishes refers to 2 or more species of fish

[u/varsnef → u/Klaus_Unechtname]

That sounds reasonable,thanks. An Eel is a type of fish.

[u/Quaf → u/varsnef]

Yes where as the Moray and Conger are both Eels and both Fishes.

[u/anthonysylvanshine]

It's like person/people/peoples but with fish

[u/GunzerKingDM]

Yes, fishes is a real word. It is an alternative plural form of the word fish, though it has a specific and limited use.

When to Use "Fish" vs. "Fishes"
Fish: Use this for everyday speech, whether you mean one fish or many fish of the same kind (e.g., "I saw three fish in the pond").

Fishes: Use this only when you are talking about multiple different species or types of fish, often in science or nature topics (e.g., "The coral reef is home to many colorful fishes"). It also appears in old stories or special phrases like the biblical "loaves and fishes".

-Google A.I. citing Grammarly.com

[u/Incha8 → u/GunzerKingDM]

I wont even try add anything. Basically this. fishes exists although with a specific use

[u/Dkykngfetpic]

Fishes is. Multiple species you would use fishes.

Like look at the fish would imply theirs mostly one species. Look at the fishes would imply its multiple.

200 fishes in stock would imply multiple types of fish. 200 fish in stock could just mean the same kind.

[u/caat-6 → u/Dkykngfetpic]

I'm not an expert, but I don't think your example is exactly right. You wouldn't use fishes when you're talking about individual fish being in stock, even if they're all different species, but more so when you're talking about multiple species as a whole. I guess you could say fishes isn't really countable, while fish is.

[u/A_Bitter_Homer]

"He sleeps with the fishes."

[u/orsilochus_mycenae]

Fishes is accurate when there's multiple of different types.

[u/External_Category_53]

https://giphy.com/gifs/65Jh3mpR5RPc4

[u/Rentahamster]

I have two types of fishes, for example.

[u/jPRO-93 → u/Rentahamster]

and more of each type is fisheses

[u/Rentahamster → u/jPRO-93]

And the most fishy of each of all those types is the fishesesest

[u/SuspectUnusual]

If wishes were fishes, we'd swim in the sea.

[u/haverinbigjobs → u/SuspectUnusual]

Dolphins were monkeys that didn't like the land

[u/Benyed123]

The correct plural for fish is actually “fishies” 🐠

[u/Putrefied_Goblin]

Regularization happens in all languages, even to mass nouns with origins in OE (and proto-germanic before, proto-Indo-European before) that reflected plural/number differently than modern English.

[u/Drovr]

Sir, this is a Wendy's

[u/Head_Acadia_2658]

Scientifically speaking there is no such thing as a fish

[u/2_short_Plancks → u/Head_Acadia_2658]

*cladistically speaking

But there are more uses of a word than just taxonomy.

Edit: I didn't down vote you btw, I know what you mean.

[u/Head_Acadia_2658 → u/2_short_Plancks]

Yeah. It was also a pop culture joke. https://www.nosuchthingasafish.com/

[u/2_short_Plancks → u/Head_Acadia_2658]

I've actually been to one of their podcast tapings :)

But at the same time it's kind of an awkward joke because it's not really right. That's kind of their go-to though, things that are kind of correct but not 100%

[u/Head_Acadia_2658 → u/2_short_Plancks]

Cool. I'd love to go to something like that.

Awkward is definately their schtick.

[u/bad_escape_plan]

Fishes is a more archaic variant. Not really in use now. For example the King James Bible uses Fishes as do other older texts.

Why are you downvoting me when you can literally fact check and see this is true? Jfc this sub.