Reaching 78 cm (31 in) long, this shark is characterized by a slender, plain brown body, and by two dorsal fins with straight trailing margins and the second smaller but longer-based than the first.

Reproduction is oviparous with an annual cycle; females deposit egg capsules four at a time and the young hatch after 70–80 days.

It has been assessed as Near Threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), as there is increasing fishing pressure and habitat degradation within its range.

The reproductive cycle has been documented in captivity: copulation involves the male holding onto one of the female's pectoral fins with his mouth, while inserting a single clasper into her cloaca for 5–15 minutes.

[5] Females produce an average of 33 egg capsules per year in batches of four, that are laid over a period of 20 minutes to two days.

It is captured incidentally in intertidal hadra (artisanal stake-net traps), as well as in demersal trammel and trawl nets.

The Arabian carpetshark forms the predominant component of the "cat shark" catch of Kuwaiti prawn trawls, which represents the second-largest bycatch (14% of total) of the fishery.

Another potentially major threat to this species is habitat degradation: coral reefs in the Persian Gulf face bottom trawling, coastal development (especially large-scale land reclamation projects such as in the United Arab Emirates), Turkish dams on the Tigris-Euphrates river system, draining of marshes in Iraq, and oil spills.

As both fishing and habitat degradation are likely to intensify in the region, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed the Arabian carpetshark as Near Threatened.