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Deep in the weeds here, but the plural of a single species of fish is 'fish', while multiple species of fish are 'fishes'.

'Swimming with the fishes' means you must have wound up on the wrong side of a boat in a diverse body of water. It would be a shame to have to 'swim with the fish'. So ambiguous.

Learn something new every day :)

The plural "fish" is more than one fish of the same species. The plural "fishes" is multiple species. At least biologists make that distinction. edit: what Alex Young said.

"Fishes" is the word used to describe different species of fish.

Edit: late for the party. "Deeres" and "sheepes" follow the same pattern, I presume.