Chrysoblephus puniceus was first formally described as Chrysophrys puniceus in 1908 by the ichthyologists John Dow Fisher Gilchrist, a Scot, and William Wardlaw Thompson, a South African, with its type locality given as KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

[3] The genus Chrysoblephus is placed in the family Sparidae within the order Spariformes by the 5th edition of Fishes of the World.

[4] Chrysoblephus puniceus has the specific namepuniceus which means "reddish", an allusion to the pink colour of the body of this fish.

[1] Chrysoblephus puniceus is the only protogynous hermaphrodite in the Natal area,[9] with females becoming male at approximately 5 years[1] or 38 cm.

Adults are mainly resident but there is evidence that juveniles are migratory, moving northwards from the Eastern Cape to KwaZulu-Natal and southern Mozambique.