Indo-West Pacific: Red Sea and East Africa to the Indo-Malayan Archipelago, Philippines, Taiwan, Ryukyu Islands, Palau, New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and northern Australia.

Adult stage is uniformly black. Transformation from colorful juvenile to uniformly black adult stage occurs at a size of 50 to 60 mm (Ref. 37816). Large adults are bluish-black and grows rather large, reaching about 15 cm.

Found in coral-rich areas of lagoon and seaward reefs and usually associated with soft corals on which it feeds. Occur singly or in pairs.