Leiognathus brevirostris, commonly known as the Shortnose ponyfish, is a fish of brackish and marine waters found from Indo-West Pacific to the Indian coasts and off Sri Lanka to China and south of Australia. Like its relatives, the fish is an amphidromous, demersal species which feeds on diatoms, copepods, Lucifer, nematodes and polychaetes. The fish has eight dorsal spines, sixteen dorsal soft rays, three anal spines and fourteen anal soft rays. Fresh specimens possess a golden gleam which fades with dryness.