Perch-Like Fishes (Perciformes)

This group gathers Fish subcategory members belonging to the order Perciformes and its close percomorph relatives, together the largest and most diverse single lineage of vertebrates, loosely united by a spiny first dorsal fin and pelvic fins set far forward beneath the body. It spans true perches and basses, the groupers and snappers of coral reefs, jacks and trevallies built for open-water speed, the barracuda, an elongated ambush predator, remoras, which attach to larger fish and sharks by a modified sucker-like dorsal fin, the open-ocean tunas, mackerels, marlins, sailfish and swordfish, among the fastest fish in the sea, and a scatter of freshwater percomorphs such as the walleye, bluegill and the wrongly named Murray cod and lingcod, neither of which is a true member of the cod family despite the common name.