Chocolate Knife Fish

Chocolate Knife Fish (Apteronotus leptorhynchus)
A graceful and mysterious nocturnal fish with smooth movement and a rich chocolate-brown tone

The Chocolate Knife Fish is an elegant, eel-like freshwater species admired for its flowing swimming motion and subtle dark brown to chocolate coloration. Like other knifefish, it moves using a long undulating anal fin, allowing it to glide effortlessly forwards and backwards. Mostly nocturnal and shy by nature, it prefers dim lighting, caves, and driftwood where it can feel secure during the day. Peaceful but predatory, it should be housed with tankmates too large to be considered food and is best suited to larger, well-maintained aquariums.

Need to Know:

• Recommended For: Experienced aquarists and peaceful oddball aquariums

• Minimum Tank Size: 300 litres

• Temperature Range: 24–30°C

• pH Range: 6.0–7.5

• Recommended School Size: Best kept singly

• Compatibility: Peaceful but predatory; will eat very small fish

• Max Size: 30–40 cm

Shipping Disclaimer:

All fish are shipped on Monday or Tuesday mornings via an overnight courier (Sometimes same day, location dependant). We use NZ Couriers for all livestock shipping, we find they handle your fish with the best possible care.

Special Requests:

If you have any requests for gender/colour etc we will do our best to accomodate them. Please note we can not always accomodate every request due to high stock turnover and what is available at the time. We move all fish sold online into seperate holding tanks while they wait to be shipped.

Rural Shipping:

Good news! If you are a rural customer, we can still ship fish to you. Fish will be shipped to your nearest agent and they will call you when they arrive. Please ensure you provide your mobile number when ordering.