Suborder
Zoarcoidei
Apodichthys flavidus. Photo: (c) Dan Hershman, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA)
Perciformes, also called the Percomorpha or Acanthopteri, are the most numerous order of vertebrates, containing about 41% of all bony fish. Perciformes means “perch-like”. They belong to the class of ray-finned fish, and comprise over 10,000 species found in almost all aquatic ecosystems.