Caracanthus typicus was first formally described in 1845 by the Danish zoologist Henrik Nikolai Krøyer with the type locality given as the Hawaiian Islands.

[4] Caracanthus typicus has a laterally compressed, disc-shaped, gray body covered with small red spots.

[5][6] Caracanthus typicus is endemic to the Hawaiian Islands in the eastern central Pacific Ocean where it inhabits reefs as a benthic species which usually lives among the branches of the cauliflower coral (Pocillopora meandrina).

[7] Caracanthus typicus will move deeper into the coral if disturbed and it has venomous spines in its fins.

Based on the area of coral reef in the Hawaiian Islands, this species has a very limited distributio which is near to the threshold for the IUCN to classify it as Vulnerable.