Reportedly lift fishes (4)
I believe the answer is:
rays
'fishes' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both animals as well as being plural nouns.
Maybe you can see a link between them that I can't see?
'reportedly lift' is the wordplay.
'reportedly' shows a homophone (sound like).
'lift' becomes 'raise' (synonyms).
'raise' sounds like 'RAYS'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for rays that I've seen before include "They swim" , "Fish with wing-shaped fins and long tails" , "Beams - fish" , "shafts" , "Sunbeams" .)