This pearlfish lives inside the coelom of sea cucumbers such as Bohadschia argus, Thelenota ananas , and Stichopus chloronotus.

The body is transparent and melanophores and silvery patches are found on the abdomen, which contains a large swim bladder.

It has a free and moveable upper jaw, small conical teeth, large eyes, and 116 to 128 vertebrae.

Later, this larva settles on the seabed and searches for a sea cucumber host, in which it undergoes metamorphosis into a juvenile fish.

Its range extends from the Red Sea and the East African coast to the Society Islands, Taiwan, and northern and eastern Australia, probably southwards as far as Tasmania.