This species schools in shallow coastal waters, and is known to enter lagoons, estuaries, and freshwater rivers to feed. Mass shoaling takes place at sea during spawning. It consumes various algae, diatoms, foraminiferans, and detritus associated with sand and mud (Harrison and Senou 1999). The maximum total length is 60 cm (Lieske and Myers 1994). Spawning occurs from February to April in the southern Arabian Gulf, age and size at sexual maturity for males and females are 4.5 years and 38 cm and 4 years and 41.8 cm, respectively, and the maximum age is 9 years (Grandcourt et al. 2010). When applying an age at first reproduction of 4 years and longevity of 9 years, its estimated generation length is 6.5 years based on the following equation recommended by the IUCN Red List methods: Age at first reproduction + (Age at last reproduction -“ age at first reproduction)/2.