They have tough leathery skin with no scales, which looks a little velvety and sometimes grows a small forest of algae. If too much algae grows on the skin, they will scrape it off on a rock. They have a deep body and can average 20-25cm in length. The head has a steep front profile which ends abruptly in a pointed snout, with a tube like mouth bearing many bands of small teeth in each jaw. There are rough heavy bony plate which cover most of the head and have a high, crest-like dorsal fin. The pelvic and pectoral fins hae long, thick ras to hold the fish when it sits on the sea bottom. It is brown to pinkish brown with darker markings and alternating whitish bars on the flanks.

Occur in the continental shelf. Benthic (bottom living). Sedentary fishes that swim slowly and spend much of their time resting on the bottom.

They eat little crustaceans and snails off of seaweed and from rocks.

These funny fish look a bit like a pig, but they also make a grunting sound when excited or scared, and just like pigs they make slurping sounds when they are eating! They have little fear of divers allowing them to approach and sometimes handle them.
Occasionally caught on a line and are good eating but are considered too small to harvest commercially.

NZ Marine Fishes: Paul
Paxton, J.R., D.F. Hoese, G.R. Allen and J.E. Hanley, 1989. Pisces. Petromyzontidae to Carangidae. Zoological Catalogue of Australia, Vol. 7. Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 665 p.