It has jaws of equal length, a small oblique mouth the end of which extends to a level hallway between the nostril and the front edge of the eye.

The caudal fin has a dark border and several bands made up of faint spots at its base, but lacks obvious transverse black striping.

[2] The Eastern striped grunter is found from Singapore east to Australia and north to China and Okinawa.

[4] It is an omnivorous species[2] but the major part of its diet comprises small fishes and invertebrates.

[2] The Eastern striped grunter was first formally described as Terapon sexlineatus in 1825 by the French naturalists Jean René Constant Quoy and Joseph Paul Gaimard with the type locality given as Shark Bay, Western Australia.