Cells are rods approximately 3 µm long and 0.7 µm wide growing mainly as single cells. The optimum NaCl concentration required for growth is 0.045 % (w/v). Negative for catalase, oxidase, aesculin, indole production, nitrate reduction, urease reaction and gelatin hydrolysis. There is a positive reaction for α-galactosidase and 6-phospho-β-galactosidase, but not for β-galactosidase, arginine arylamidase, histidine arylamidase, α-glucosidase, β-glucosidase, α-arabinosidase, β-glucuronidase, N-acetyl-β-glucosaminidase, glutamic acid decarboxylase, α-fucosidase, alkaline phosphatase, proline, leucyl glycine, phenylalanine, leucine, pyroglutamic acid, tyrosine, alanine, glycine, glutamyl glutamic acid or serine. The cells grow well on YCFA-M medium. Growth occurs in the temperature range 20–28 °C (optimum, 24 °C), at a pH range of pH 6.9–8.5 (optimum, pH 7.8). The fermentation products produced during growth in YCFA-M medium are formate and acetate. Cells grow only under reducing conditions in the absence of oxygen. The major cellular fatty acids present (at >5 % of the total) are C14 : 0, C16 : 0, C18 : 0, C16:1n˗7t and C18:1n˗9c.

The type strain is strain BP52GT (=NZRM 4757T=JCM 34692T), isolated at the School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, New Zealand. Strains were isolated from the fermentative hindgut contents of the herbivorous marine fish Kyphosus sydneyanus.