Indo-Pacific: Red Sea and East Africa to the Hawaiian Islands and the Tuamoto Archipelago. Apparently rare or absent in the more easterly groups. Also eastern Mediterranean (through the Suez Canal).

A small shark with a short, bluntly rounded snout, oval eyes, and narrow-cusped teeth; 2nd dorsal fin large; no interdorsal ridge. Yellow-brown above, white below; all fins conspicuous with black or dark brown tips also anterior and posterior dark edging on pectoral fins and upper lobe of caudal fin; a prominent black tip of first dorsal fin set off abruptly by a light band below it; a conspicuous dark band on flanks, extending rearward to pelvic fins.

Inhabits shallow water close inshore on coral reefs and in the intertidal zone (reef flats), near reef drop-offs and close offshore.