Murex fistulatus sensu Risso: « Shell glaucous gray; seven whorls of spire (the two of the summit mammillated) transversely costulate; the radials are lamelliform, provided posteriorly with extended spines. Great coralligenous depths. »

In fact, the species can also be found at low tide in some very sheltered places such as the Gulf of Gabes, Tunisia, or in very shallow water, on flat rocks covered with a layer of sand and colonized by the green alga Dasycladus vermicularis (Scop.) Krasser, 1898. They often stay just below the surface of the sediment.