This species is of minor importance to local commercial fisheries and can be found in the aquarium trade.

This name is thought to have been used among early naturalists because this species was believed to feed on terrestrial insects by spitting drops of water from its elongated mouth.

[5] The slingjaw wrasse is found in a wide area of the Indo-Pacific region from the eastern coast of Africa, Madagascar and the Red Sea through the Indian Ocean coasts and islands into the Pacific as far east as Johnston Atoll in Hawaii, although vagrants occur in the main Hawaiian chain.

[1] It is found along the northern coasts of Australia from the Houtman Abrolhos archipelago to reefs in the Coral Sea off Queensland.

The sling-jaw wrasse's most notable feature is that the mouth of this species is armed with highly protrusible jaws which unfold into a tube which is easily half its head length (see below).

[2] The males of this species are greyish-brown with orange on the back, a yellowish transverse bar on the flank and a pale grey head which is marked with a thin black stripe running through the eye.

[6] Intermediately patterned individuals which have yellow blotches, a pale tail and sometimes with black pectoral fins do occur.

Spawning seems to be initiated by the females and has been recorded in March, April, May, July, September and October.