It is native to the northwestern Pacific Ocean, where it occurs in China, Japan, and Korea.

It lacks scales and has a swim bladder and a small pelvic fin; most gobies develop scales, lose their swim bladders, and grow longer pelvic fins as they mature into adulthood.

[3] The ice goby is a valued food fish in South Korea and Japan, where it commands high prices.

The generic name is a compound noun formed from the Greek leukos meaning "white" in reference to the pale, translucent body[7] and opsarion meaning "fish eaten with bread"[8] and which is equivalent to the Japanese name for this fish Shiri-uwo.

The specific name honours Wilhelm C. H. Peters (1815-1883), a German explorer and naturalist, who put Hilgendorf's original description of this species forward for publication.