[3] It has a thin, elongate body with a terminal mouth and a more pointed snout than other wrasse belonging to genus Halichoeres.

The chain-lined wrasse is widespread throughout the tropical and subtropical waters of the central Indo-Pacific, from Indonesia to Philippines and from Solomon Islands to south Japan.

[1] This wrasse occurs in shallow waters from lagoons and channels rich in soft coral down to a depth of 12 meters.

[6] It is a benthic predator that feeds mainly on small marine invertebrates such as crustaceans, molluscs, worms and echinoderms captured on or in the substrate.

[1] Halichoeres richmondi was described in 1928 by the American ichthyologists Henry Weed Fowler and Barton Appler Bean with the type locality given as Inamucan Bay on Mindanao in the Philippines.