It has a wide Indo-Pacific distribution which extends from the Red Sea east to the western Pacific Ocean.

The upper flanks and back are silvery brown interspersed with dark blotches.

[1] It was recorded as E. elongatus for the first time in the Mediterranean Sea off Israel in 2011,[2] and more recently off Lebanon and Turkey where it remains rare.

[3][4] Equulites popei is found in shallow waters, where it is normally encountered in schools close to the bottom.

[5] Whitley did not specify the identity of the person honoured in its specific name but since he was replacing the preoccupied name elongatus given to this species by the American ichthyologists Hugh McCormick Smith (1865–1941) and Thomas E.B.