'A very different kettle of fish'

Is this an expression used in America or is it a British expression only? I need to know because I'm writing something that I want to post on an American website and it, therefore (obviously) needs to make sense to Americans. TIA

• Google is your friend.

  http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-ket1.htm

• OP never saw a Laurel & Hardy film.

• It is not like it is even a popular expression in the US.

• If you want your writing to sound as if your great-grandpa wrote it, then "kettle of fish" is perfectly acceptable in the US.

• [quote]If you want your writing to sound as if your great-grandpa wrote it, then "kettle of fish" is perfectly acceptable in the US. OK, I'll think of another way to express it. Thanks for the swift response.

• I've heard the term used in America once in a while, with variations like "a very different kettle of (fill in the blank animal)." But it's more common with older generations.

• It's "a fine kettle of fish" btw. Perhaps you are thinking of "that's a horse of a different color".

• Or a whole other ball of wax?

• A whole different ballgame

• I prefer "a whole nother Oprah" myself.

• On the news yesterday (BBC), there was a piece on the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats maintaining the coalition. One leader mentioned "stepping up to the plate" and the other mentioned having a "full tank of gas." Metaphors seem to cross the pond both ways.

• As others have stated, the modern, contemporary American equivalent is "that's a horse of a different color." People will understand you immediately.

• Nobody likes fish!

  Hissssssing%20Eldergay

• If you want to avoid metaphor, "A different matter entirely" is fine and will be understood by both UK and US speakers.

• OP's metaphor doesn't mean that at all. It is a sarcastic statement about being in a fucked up situation. "Well, that's a fine kettle of fish you have gotten us into."

• He didn't write "fine kettle", r15, but "different kettle". Cambridge Idioms dictionary for "different kettle of fish" is: "if you say that something or someone is a different kettle of fish, you mean that they are completely different from something or someone else that has been talked about"

  http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/be+a+different+kettle+of+fish