I had to scroll down about thirty images to find something that wasn't a mammal. It was a lizard. Most of the animals were fuzzy. (I may have missed some marsupials, to be fair.) I believe these search results are reflective of what people are looking for when they search "animal," and it isn't fish.
Are fish animals? I would agree. Is it normal to feel differently? I believe so.
I think maybe there is some overlap with op and the idea that "fish" is different from "meat." That's something that basically everyone said at some point.
If fish aren't meat but are animals, it should tell you how arbitrary these distinctions are.
You don't need to know any details of taxonomy as a discipline to know that fish are animals.
For the record, the original meaning of "meat," was just food, in general. So we have sweetmeats, mincemeat, etc.
Most of the people in my life have a strong interest in biology, my friends are nerds who are liable to use binomial names they picked up in Seek. But I doubt we're reflective of the broader culture. I think a lot of people couldn't tell you the difference between a kingdom from a phylum, and again, that's fine, it doesn't make them stupid or something.
See also this comment for some citations about how they are categorized in the context of commerce: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37542165