[3] The genus Rhabdosargus is placed in the family Sparidae within the order Spariformes by the 5th edition of Fishes of the World.

[7] Rhabdosargus sarba belongs to the genus Rhabdosargus, a name which is a refixes rhabdos, meaning "stick" or "rod", an allusion to the yellow abdominal band of Sargus auriventris, its type species, to Sargos, a name used for Sparid fish in ancient Greek at least as long ago as Aristotle but in this case is a reference to Sargus as a synonym of Diplodus.

[10] The overall colour of this fish is greyish with a silvery-gold hue, the ventral surface is silvery-white, and there are thin yellowish to golden horizontal stripes along the flanks.

[11] There is a single records from the Mediterranean off Syria, and this is thought likely to have been a Lessepsian migrant from the Red Sea through the Suez Canal.

[10] The goldlined seabream has been found to be a protandrous hermaphrodite off South Africa, Hong Kong and in the Persian Gulf, however, recent studies off Western and Eastern Australia have found it to be a rudimentary hermaphrodite in these waters.

Spawning occurs between July and November off KwaZulu-Natal in inshore waters, near large estuaries and river mouths.

[10] The goldlined seabream has been overfished in the Persian Gulf and the stock has declined so R. sarba has been classified by the International Union for Conservation of Natureas Near Threatened in the Persian Gulf,[2] while being classified as Least Concern globally.