Two strains (T68T and T62) of a Gram-reaction-negative, yellow-pigmented bacterium containing flexirubin-type pigments were recovered from the kidney of a cultured lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) and necrotic fins of a brown trout (Salmo trutta) during disease surveillance in 2009. Both isolates possessed catalase and cytochrome oxidase activities and degraded multiple substrates (e.g. gelatin, casein, elastin and Tweens 20 and 80). The mean DNA G+C content of strain T68T was 34.1 mol%. 16S rRNA gene sequencing demonstrated that strains T68T and T62 had nearly identical sequences (≥99 % similarity) and placed the bacterium within the genus Chryseobacterium, where Chryseobacterium ginsenosidimutans THG 15T (97.8%), C. gregarium DSM 19109T (97.7%) and C. soldanellicola PSD1-4T (97.6%) were its closest relatives. Subsequent phylogenetic analyses using neighbour-joining, maximum-parsimony and Bayesian methodologies demonstrated that strains T68T and T62 formed a well-supported clade (bootstrap values of 100 and 97%; posterior probability 0.99) that was distinct from other species of the genus Chryseobacterium. The major fatty acids of strains T68T and T62 were characteristic of the genus Chryseobacterium and included iso-C15:0, summed feature 3 (C16:1ω6c and/or C16:1ω7c), iso-C17:0 3-OH, C16:0 and C16:0 3-OH. The mean DNA-DNA relatedness of strain T68T to C. ginsenosidimutans JCM 16719T and C. gregarium LMG 24952T was 24 and 21%, respectively. Based on the results from our polyphasic characterization, strains T68T and T62 represent a novel species of the genus Chryseobacterium, for which the name Chryseobacterium aahli sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is T68T (=LMG 27338T=ATCC BAA-2540T). Emended descriptions of Chryseobacterium ginsenosidimutans and Chryseobacterium gregarium are also proposed.