The chocolate fish is a confectionery

Confectionery

Confectionery is the set of food items that are rich in sugar, any one or type of which is called a confection. Modern usage may include substances rich in artificial sweeteners as well...

 from New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

. These candies are fish

Fish

Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...

-shaped, are 6 to 8 inches in length, and are made of pink or white marshmallow

Marshmallow

The marshmallow is a confection that, in its modern form, typically consists of sugar, corn syrup, water, gelatin that has been softened in hot water, dextrose, vanilla flavourings, and sometimes colouring, whipped to a spongy consistency. Some marshmallow recipes call for egg whites...

 covered in a thin layer of milk chocolate

Chocolate

Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...

. Several companies make the fish but the most well recognised is Cadbury

Cadbury

-Businesses:*Cadbury Adams, the company's North American subsidiary*Cadbury Ireland, the company's Irish subsidiary*Cadbury UK, the company's UK subsidiary*Cadbury India, the company's Indian subsidiary*Cadbury New Zealand, the company's New Zealand subsidiary...

, which makes foiled and unfoiled variants of the fish with a pink marshmallow centre. Smaller, or "fun-sized" variants of the chocolate fish are colloquially referred to as Sprats, the same name given to shoreline shoals of small fish. For a short period, in the late 1990s - early 2000, there was a Tip Top

Tip Top (icecream)

Fonterra Brands Ltd or commonly known simply as Tip Top ice cream, is a subsidiary of the Fonterra Co-operative Group based in Auckland, New Zealand.-History:...

 brand chocolate fish ice-cream that performed poorly in sales. Recently there have been suggestions of a return of this style of ice-cream in a new formula.

The chocolate fish has an important role in kiwi culture as a reward for a small job done well ("Give that man a chocolate fish"). The term 'invisible chocolate fish' has also been a part of contemporary Kiwiana

Kiwiana

Kiwiana are certain items and icons from New Zealand's heritage, especially from around the middle of the 20th century that are seen as representing iconic Kiwi elements...

culture as a semi-sarcastic reward.