Datnioides was first proposed as a genus in 1853 by the Dutch physician, herpetologist and ichthyologist Pieter Bleeker, in 1876 Bleeker designated Datnoides polota,[1] which was the same as Coius polota that Francis Hamilton had described in 1822 from the Ganges, as its type species.

[6] Datnioides means having the form of Datnia, a synonym of the Terapontid genus Mesopristes, the lack of teeth on the roof of the mouth meant that these fishes and Mesopristes were thought to be closely related and classified in the Percidae.

[7] The currently recognized species in this genus are:[8] Datnioides tiger perches are characterised by having toothless palatine and vomer.

[4] The smallest of the genus is the New Guinea tiger perch (D. campbelli) with a maximum published standard length of 32 cm (13 in) while the largest is the finescale tigerfish (D. microlepis) with a maximum published total length of 55 cm (22 in).

[4] Datnioides tiger perches are distributed from India to New Guinea[8] in fresh and brackish waters.