[2] The specific name pistilliger means "to bear pistils", a reference to the axillary papillae of the males.

There are a small number of bony plates typically found along the median line of the space between the eyes.

[1] Gymnocanthus pistilliger is found in the north Pacific Ocean from the Sea of Japan, the Sea of Okhotsk to the Chukchi Peninsula in Asia and from Norton Sound, Alaska to Kiska Island in the Aleutian and southeastern Alaska in North America.

Females collected in June had resting stage ovaries which contained some residual eggs from a previous batch of spawning.

[5] In the Russian part of the Sea of Japan there is a spring migration of this species from the outer edge of the continental shelf towards the warmer miggle and upper parts of the shelfs where it gathers in feeding aggregations in the summer and in the autumn they gather in shoals before spawning.