[4] In 1802 Bernard Germain de Lacépède classified Zeus aper into the monotypic genus Capros.

Both are allusions to the cylindrical snout, ending in a small mouth with a protrusible upper lip, resembling a pig.

The lateral line has 20 tubed scales and terminates underneath the rearmost spine of the dorsal fin.

[3] The boarfish is found over coral, rocks and sand, being most common along the edge of the continental shelf and areas of high productivity.

[1] Capros is a carnivorous genus which feeds mainly on small crustaceans and polychaetes as well as molluscs and hydrozoans.

[10] The boarfish is a R-strategist, they produce a large number of pelagic eggs which hatch into very small larvae and provide no parental care.

[3] Despite their well armoured bodies boarfishes are known to be taken by a number of fishes, including tope (Galeorhinus galeus), thornback ray (Raja clavata), conger eel (Conger conger), bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus), and blackspot seabream (Pagellus bogaraveo), as well as birds such as Cory's shearwater (Calonectris diomedea), common tern (Sterna hirundo) and the yellow-legged gull (Larus cachinnans).

[13] Capros has increased in frequency in fishing catches in the northeastern Atlantic in the late 20th and early 21st Centuries.

This genus has life history characteristics, e.g. longevity and late maturity, that make it more vulnerable to overfishing than other small pelagic, schooling fish such as Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) and European pilchard (Sardina pilchardus).