The false cleanerfish primarily lives in coral reef margins among the cleaning stations of the bluestreak cleaner wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus),[2] and are usually seen near locations of one or more L.

[6] Additionally, the false cleanerfish has a small set of teeth on the upper mandible, as well as enormous canines that protrude from its lower jaw and fit into sockets laterally on the roof of its mouth.

[6] The false cleanerfish has been observed to mimic the unusual "dance" of the bluestreak cleaner wrasse by spreading its caudal fin and oscillating its posterior end up and down.

[2][3] Occasionally, however, rather than feeding on ectoparasites like the cleaner wrasse, the false cleanerfish will attack and attempt (and sometimes succeed) at tearing away portions of fin from the client fish.

[12] However, there is evidence of geographical variation on the benefits obtained by the mimicry: whereas in the Red Sea and the Great Barrier Reef foraging on tube worms or substrate was more common than attacks by mimics, in French Polynesia and Indonesia false cleanerfish (especially juveniles) fed on client fish tissue more commonly than other food sources.

[4] An alternate reason for the mimicry behavior of A. taeniatus is to deceive egg-caring fishes so to more easily gain access to their eggs; however, little evidence favors this possibility.