Despite being known as the lawnmower blenny, due to its propensity to consume algae growth in aquaria, it is principally a detritivore, with plant material making up only about 15% of its diet.

[2] The lawnmower blenny camoflauges itself with its surroundings, even changing color to hide from predators.

Salarias fasciatus is typically olive to brown with dark bars and a large number of round or elongated white spots of different sizes.

[3] The Salarias fasciatus lives in reefs at depths of 0–8 m (0–26 ft) from East Africa and the Red Sea to Samoa and the Islands of Micronesia.

[3] Georges Cuvier described this species as Salarias quadripennis in 1816 and named it as the type species of the genus Salarias but Cuvier's name was shown to be a junior synonym of Bloch's Blennius fasciatus.