The Kelpfishes were placed in the monogeneric family Chironemidae in 1862 by the American ichthyologist Theodore Nicholas Gill.

[1] The genus had been described in 1829 by the French zoologist Georges Cuvier when he had described the type species Chironemus georgianus.

[4] Chironemus kelpfishes are found in the southern Pacific Ocean off Australia, New Zealand and the western coast of South America off Peru and Chile.

[3] They are coastal fishes adapted to living in shallow waters where they are exposed to waves.

They lodge themselves into small niches or interstices in rocks holding their bodies in place with their large pectoral fins.