If fishes were wishes…

One or many, how do you go about addressing it?

“ Fish can recognise human faces!” Shalini read out aloud.

“Hey! Fishes like their deep-sea hatchet and dragon fish use the light-producing organ called photophore on their bellies for camouflage; this makes them effectively invisible to predators that might be looking up,” shouted Abhinav, as he found another interesting fish fact.

Both are fascinating facts, indeed; but, what is the plural of fish? Fish or fishes?

Well, the most common plural of fish is fish and can refer to multiple fish , especially when they are all the same species of fish . However, under certain circumstances, you use fishes as the plural form of fish.

If, for example, you see two trout swimming together, you could say that you’re looking at fish . But, if the two trout are joined by a salmon, you could call them fishes . Fishes refer to multiple species of fish , especially in Biology.

The plural for fishes is also used in the following contexts:

Fishes , with an apostrophe, function as plural possessive of fish . For eg: the fishes’ scales were gleaming in the sunlight.

Shane fishes as a hobby. Here it’s a form of the verb to fish .

And then in the popular saying “if fishes were wishes, we’d all cast nets,” fishes is used to rhyme with wishes.

And how I really wish wishes were fishes !