This species is found in the Indian and Pacific waters from Papua New Guinea, the Arafura Sea and northwest Australia.

It is a demersal fish found on the inshore area of the continental shelf at depths between 19 and 49 m (62 and 161 ft).

This species grows to a length of 19 centimetres (7.5 in) SL.

[1][2] Apistops was first described as a genus in 1911 by the Australian ichthyologist James Douglas Ogilby for Apistus caloundra,[3] a species which had been described in 1886 by the English zoologist Charles Walter De Vis who gave the type locality as Caloundra in Queensland.

[4] The genus name Apistops means "lookong like Apistus, the genus it was originally placed in by De Vis and the specific name refers to the type locality.