[4] The specific name horrida means "dreadful" or "frightful" and is an allusion to its appearance rather than its dangerously venomous spines.

[5] Synanceia horrida is a drab coloured benthic fish which can be brownish-grey to reddish or greenish-brown.

[2] Synanceia horrida is found in the Indo-Pacific region where it extends from the eastern coast of India to Papua New Guinea, north to southern Japan and south to Australia.

[6] Synanceia horrida is camouflaged, unlike many venomous species which use bright aposematic colouration to warn off potential predators, and resembles a stone resting on the bottom.

It scoops out a depression in the substrate with its large pectoral fins and curls its tail around its body to enhance this camouflage.

[8] However, the females are larger than the males and it has been observed spawning in aggregations in shallow water over a silt substrate in Queensland.

[10] They are occasionally taken by subsistence fisheries, appear in some Asia live fish markets,[1] and have been considered as a potential species for aquaculture.