A deep bodied fish with a large eye. Body is dark coloured and sprinkled with many small dots.

Nocturnal, retreats to large surge pools or channels open to the sea during the day and usually under overhangs or ledges in small schools. Juveniles occur amongst weed along rocky shores in late summer.

Feeds on plankton and benthic organisms (Ref. 26966). Adult diet observed consists of amphipods (45%), mysids (20%), polychaetes (20%), isopods (7%), and crab larvae and ostracods (8%) which are taken out of the water column c. 4-5 m from the bottom. Juveniles that are less than 40 mm are diurnal feeders, mostly feeding on small copepods. Some groups were observed to enter rivers by night in summer and swim well upstream into mangrove forests to feed on crab larvae, shrimps, amphipods, and other zooplankton.

Gravid females were found among collections made in mid November into February. These observations agree with reported observations that spawning occurs from November through February and that juveniles settle in January through April. Named after their big eye". "


Recently been found to be an active sound producer.

NZ Marine Fishes: Paul
Paulin, C. and C. Roberts, 1992. The rockpool fishes of New Zealand (Te ika aaria o Aotearoa). Museum of New Zealand (Te Papa Tongarewa). 177 p. Radford CA, Montgomery JC, Caiger P, Johnston P, Lu J, Higgs DM.(2013), A novel hearing specialization in the New Zealand bigeye, Pempheris adspersa.Biol Lett. 2013 May 22;9(4).