They spawn during the summer as the water levels rise as a result of the monsoon, they may sawn in groups. The males guard and fan the eggs after fertilisation. Sooty grunters are a regarded as a good angling fish. In Quuensland there is a bag limit of 10 specimens. The sooty grunter was first formally described as "Therapon fuliginosus" in 1883 by the Scottish-Australian naturalist William John Macleay with the type locality given as the Upper Burdekin River in northern Queensland. The specific name "fuliginosus", from the Latin word "fuligo", "soot", refers to the sooty coloration of the species.