[3] The upper part of the head and body are brown with yellowish or pinkish flanks and a silvery sheen on the underside.

It is characteristic component of the assemblage of fish species occurring at depths of more than 200 m (660 ft) in offshore waters.

[1] Tang's snapper was first formally described in 1970 as Tangia carnolabrum by Chan William Lai-Yee with the type locality given as being in the South China Sea, about 145 km (90 mi) to the southeast of Hong Kong at a depth of 110 to 130 m (360 to 430 ft).

[4] The genus name, Tangia, was preoccupied by a genus of leafhoppers[5] in the family Tropiduchidae,[6] so in 1977 the new genus name Lipocheilus was coined by William D. Anderson Jr., Purnesh Kumar Talwar and G. David Johnson, the novel name being a compound of lipos meaning 'fat' and cheilos meaning 'lip', a reference to the fleshy knob on the upper lip; the specific name carnolabrum means 'fleshy lips' for a similar reason.

[7] Tang's snapper is a target species for of long-line fisheries, especially on the continental shelf off southern China while in Papua New Guinea, this species is commercially important despite bot being directly targeted by fisheries.