[2] Juveniles move from saltwater to freshwater streams shortly before changes in the anatomy of their mouths make eating plankton impossible.

The females attach their eggs to rocks where they are fertilised by the males, and the hatchlings are immediately washed downstream into the sea, where they develop, later to return to the freshwater pools upstream, where they live for several years.

This change is effected in two days, altering their diet from that of a filter feeder to feeding almost exclusively on algae growing on the rock surfaces, and not coincidentally enabling them to ascend slippery waterfall rocks by using mouth and pelvic suckers.

[4] It is preyed upon by black-crowned night herons and during its upstream migration through the estuary by Caranx spp., Polydactylus sexfilis and Sphyraena barracuda.

[6] The specific name honours the marine biologist William Stimpson (1832-1872), who was the collector of the type specimen.