This species is also referred to as ‘royal knifefish’ in the aquarium trade but arguably has no place in the ornamental hobby given its adult size and specialised requirements.

It can be distinguished from congeners by presence of many small, dark spots on the anterior portion of the body which merge to form oblique, irregular stripes extending onto the anal and caudal fins posteriorly.

The ornamental albino variant is widely-available and has become extremely popular in the hobby and there is a commercially-produced anerythristic (lacking red pigment) mutation that has pale yellowish fins and has sometimes been misidentified as E. munense. Also worthy of note is that the specific name is sometimes misspelled ‘frenatus‘.

Most members of Epalzeorhynchos were formerly regarded as Labeo spp. and are thus referred to as such in older literature. According to Rainboth (1996) they’re characterised by absence of a dorsal spine…