The slaughterfish is the reason a quick swim in Skyrim is never entirely relaxing. These narrow, needle-toothed predators patrol rivers, lakes, the open sea and the occasional pond, and they go for anyone who splashes into their territory. Individually they are weak, but they tend to travel in small schools of two or three, and fighting back is awkward because the Dragonborn can neither draw a weapon nor cast spells while swimming.
Compared with earlier games in the series, Skyrim’s slaughterfish are surprisingly scarce. Only around a hundred are placed in the whole world, which works out to roughly forty encounters, and many of those sit inside caves and dungeons. That rarity is hidden by how often their traces turn up: seared slaughterfish is a common meal on tables everywhere, and clutches of slaughterfish eggs appear along shores even where no fish live at all, Lake Honrich in the Rift being the classic example. Despite the cooked dish, the fish themselves cannot be harvested for meat.
When one dies, its body floats to the surface, which at least makes collecting slaughterfish scales easy. Size varies from fish to fish, but none of them ever grows very large.
Where to find them
The densest concentration is in the Reach, along the Karth River and its tributaries:
- Purewater Run, a cave that feeds the Karth River.
- The river west of Dragon Bridge Overlook.
- The pond outside Chillwind Depths.
- Where three waterways meet east of Kolskeggr Mine.
- Below the hill of the Reach Stormcloak Camp.
- A short way east of Salvius Farm.
Elsewhere in the province:
- Falkreath Hold: Lake Ilinalta, around the Lady Stone and the Sunken Barrow.
- Hjaalmarch: the Hjaal River near the Abandoned Shack, and a pool deep inside Labyrinthian.
- The Pale: the Sea of Ghosts outside the Dawnstar Sanctuary and north of the Wreck of the Brinehammer.
- Whiterun Hold: the Hjaal River north of Swindler’s Den and the White River east of Graywinter Watch.
Notes
- Although they count as creatures, slaughterfish are hostile towards sabre cats; the cat at White River Cape is often seen squabbling with them. Predators like this can wipe out a school before the player ever finds it.
- Since patch 1.9 they only turn hostile once the Dragonborn actually enters their water. They cannot reach anyone on land, yet they rarely drop out of combat.
- With Hearthfire, adding eggs to the fish hatchery at Windstad Manor produces peaceful slaughterfish, and four scales let you mount a small slaughterfish trophy in a homestead trophy room.
- Being strictly aquatic, they cannot be brought back with reanimation spells.
- Their long-snouted look resembles the real-world alligator gar.
