The cherubfish has an oval, deep and laterally compressed body with a short, blunt snout and a small mouth.

There is a long, robust spine at the angle of the preoperculum, which has its vertical edge being serrated.

Its usual habitat is coral rubble where it feeds on algae and small benthic invertebrates.

[3] It lives in small groups of around 10 fish, usually a single male and a few females and juveniles.

[4] The cherubfish was first formally described in 1951 by Loren Paul Woods and Robert H. Kanazawa with the type locality given as the Argus Bank near Bermuda.