This speciesinhabits shallow, coastal coral reefs and isolated coral heads of lagoons. It forms schools around isolated patch reefs. Juveniles generally occur in weedy areas (Smith and McKay 1986, Baillon and Kulbicki 1988, Wantiez and Kulbicki 1995). This species also occurs over mud, sand and silt bottoms in protected bays or estuaries, around outcrops, wreckage and debris (Kuiter and Tonozuka 2001, Allen and Erdmann 2012). It primarily consumes benthic invertebrates and fish (McKay 1984). The maximum fork length is 100 cm (Torres 1991). This species spawns between April to May and November in the southern Arabian Gulf (Grandcourt et al. 2006, 2011). Natural mortality was estimated at 0.13 year^-1 (Grandcourt et al. 2006). Estimated mean female fork length and age at first sexual maturity is 35.7 cm and 2.9 years for females and 26.7 cm and 0.5 years for males and longevity is about 11 years (Grandcourt et al. 2011). When applying an age at first reproduction of 3 years and longevity of 11 years, its estimated generation length is 7 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.