[2] The Celebes monkfish was first formally described in 1912 by the American zoologists Hugh McCormick Smith and Lewis Radcliffe with its type locality given as the Gulf of Tomini, Sulawesi in Indonesia.

[3] The genus Sladenia is one of 4 extant genera in the family Lophiidae which the 5th edition of Fishes of the World classifies in the monotypic suborder Lophioidei within the order Lophiiformes.

[4] The Celebes monkfish has the genus name Sladenai which honours Percy Sladen, the British echinoderm biologist.

The specific name remiger means "bearing oars", an allusion Smith and Radcliffe did not explain but is likely to refer to the paddle-like pectoral fins.

[5] The Celebes monkfish has a rounded, rather than being flattned, head and front part of the body, tapering towards the caudal fin.