The preoperculum has a spiny margin while the operculum has a thick bony strut running horizontally at eye level which terminates in a spine.

The back and flanks are dark brown in colour with darker spots and blotches fading to yellowish on the belly.

It is found in the eastern Atlantic Ocean from Norway to South Africa, into the Mediterranean and including the Macaronesian Islands and Tristan da Cunha.

[6] Adult Atlantic wreckfish occur in and around caves, over rocky substrates and areas with densely scattered boulders, natural reefs and shipwrecks, a habitat which has led to species' common name.

They are probably best described as opportunistic, with one record of a ROV-camera filming a large congregation of small sharks feeding on a dead swordfish, with one of them being caught and swallowed whole by this species of wreckfish.

In North and South America wreckfish are sold frozen in supermarkets or grocery stores or marketed fresh from fish counters.