This widely distributed reef species is common in parts of its range. There are no known major threats; therefore, it is listed as Least Concern.

This species is distributed in Indonesia from Komodo Island and northeastern Kalimantan eastward, Vietnam (Nha Trang and Thua Thien-Hue), the Miyako Group of the Ryukyu Islands of Japan, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Palau, and Fiji (Senou et al. 2007, G.R. Allen pers. comm. 2010, Allen and Erdmann 2012, Eurich et al. 2018, Fricke et al. 2019, Mai and Nguyen 2022). Records from Java, New Caledonia and Micronesia (GBIF online database accessed July 2023) require confirmation (J. Williams pers. comm. 2023). The depth range is 2-16 m (Allen and Erdmann 2012).

This species is common in parts of its range and occurs in naturally low densities. In Papua New Guinea (14 sites), populations remained stable over a period of 13 years (A. Jenkins pers. comm. 2010). This species is prevalent on reef slopes below 5 m in Kimbe Bay, New Britain, Papua New Guinea (Eurich et al. 2018). It is known from at least 600 museum specimens collected between 1908 and 2015 (GBIF online database accessed July 2023). 

This species inhabits sheltered bays and silty, inshore reefs (Allen and Erdmann 2012). It exhibits territorial behavior, and occurs either solitarily or in loose groups (Allen and Erdmann 2012, Eurich et al. 2018). The maximum total length is 8 cm (Allen and Erdmann 2012).

There are no known major threats.

This species is not utilized.

There are no species-specific conservation measures.