I know I have read this, and I can't for the life of me remember it. Dammit.

Imajica popped into my mind as I read this, but I cannot really remember it specifically. I do know I have read about those fish as well.

(Derail: the problem is, I read a lot and I don't read deeply unless it's a super well written book. I tend to skim. It's good in some ways - I read books over and over again - but terrible for things like trying to remember oh, plots, characters, settings, authors, themes, titles... you know.)

OK so I have two different possibilities going through my head when I think of the fishes. I think it's because I read these books close to each other about 10? years ago. Plus, I have pregnancy brain. So to be very vague, the first thing that came into my head was a book that had 3 different stories set on 3 different worlds (which were numbered) in the same universe. I thought maybe one of the stories was partially set on this world? The other thing in my head was a series of books that had started off with a virus (maybe?) started by hostile aliens (maybe?) on a little outpost world and then swept into this huge space opera kind of saga. Maybe 4-6 books long. Damned if I can remember anything about it except a terrible deus ex machina ending which made me hate the whole series in retrospect, even though the first book was pretty good. Anyway, maybe the world was one of the worlds that a character in this series was from.

Yes, I am aware that this is probably more unhelpful than helpful, even if I did hit on the right book. It's also an insight into the level of vagueness at which my brain is operating right now. (all my concentration is going into a spreadsheet).

Also, if anyone has any idea what the books I've described are called, I would love to know.

I am pretty sure I haven't read Imajica, but now I want to after reading about it.

Gaspode, some of what you said about your mystery book sounds familiar too, but like you I am not sure if it is the book in question or another book I may have read at about the same time.

I also (just now) remember there being a great deal of detail about the nets that the fishermen use to catch the fish and there being something about Big Evil Corporate Conglomco from Another Planet (Earth?)trying to harvest the fish using big high tech vessels.