Elongated body with suction disk on top of head that use cleaning up the sharks body from small particle. The base color are dark gray nearly black with white stripes from head to tail. It is a free swimming species can attach to other fishes or even to divers fins. The size is up to 100 cm.

Schooling fish found on both, the muck and coral sites. The young fish can be seen in a close packed schools with up to several hundred individuals; older the individuals, smaller the schools. The balls of catfish always contain only individuals of the same size. Often seen in feeding balls, stirring up the sand in a search of food, or hiding under ledges and in crevices.