Juveniles are golden with a silver stripe. Small fish are females and change sex between 30-40cm. Males are blueish green and have long filaments to their fins.

Inhabits shallow inshore waters where rocks and brown algae are abundant.

Browses on algae and feeds mainly on the brown alga Carpophyllum. This species is locally abundant where there is suitable kelp habitat, but is more common in southern New Zealand.

It is a protogynous hermaphrodite (born female and at some point in their lifespan change sex to male) , females release 2,000-6,000 eggs, several times over the mid-winter to mid-summer spawning season.
Daily limit per person 15, minimum size 350 mm. "

Gomon, M.F. and J.R. Paxton, 1985. A revision of the Odacidae, a temperate Australian-New Zealand labroid fish family. Indo-Pac. Fish. (8):57 p. Russell, B., Clements, K.D., Choat, J.H., Rocha, L.A., Myers, R., Lazuardi, M.E., Muljadi, A., Pardede, S. & Rahardjo, P. 2012. Odax pullus. In: IUCN 2013. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. . Downloaded on 10 February 2014.