The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 11 letter word ABRANCHIATE
A
B
R
A
N
C
H
I
A
T
E
Buddy explains!

The straight part
We know that "fish with no gills" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case fish with no gills = abranchiate.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.