[8] Stomias boa has an elongated body and small head;[9] it is up to 32.2 cm (1.06 ft) in length, black underneath and iridescent silver on its flanks, with a barbel that has a pale stem, dark spot at base of bulb and three blackish filaments.

Like many fish of deep oceans, it has large eyes and is transparent and silvery in appearance with iridescent speckles.

[14][15][16] Stomias boa is mesopelagic and bathypelagic, living at depths of 200–2,173 m (656–7,129 ft) in seas worldwide in a band 20°–45° S,[17][18][19] particularly off the Atlantic coast of North America, in the western Mediterranean, the west coast of Africa as far south as Mauritania and southern Africa from Angola to the Cape of Good Hope.

[20][21] It usually inhabits waters deeper than 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) in the daytime but migrates upwards towards the surface during the night.

[14] Stomias boa eats midwater fishes and crustaceans; it rises to near the surface to feed at night.