On Star Trek: Enterprise, 1 of the 5 races of Xindi on the Xindi council are fish-people (for lack of a better term).
I am having trouble understanding how a race of under-water non-humanoids could be on equal standing with the others.
Power usually comes from the possession of military and/or economic might. Given that the fish-people live underwater, it seems unlikely that they could've ever developed any sort of laser, nuclear, or other hot fusion weapons or technology. Probably not a whole lot of space technology is getting developed there either. Not to mention that being underwater would seem to put them at a distinct disadvantage for developing banking systems, trade with the other species, etc.
So... what's the deal?