Green; fins marked and shaded with blue and salmon. Adult females and males light blue to gray-blue and dusky blue. Juveniles reddish brown. Tail is square, compared with the similar looking terminal blue-chin parrot that has a lunate tail.
Back gray to brown or yellow-brown; belly white; tail translucent with orangish spots. Often rests on bottom, sitting on pectoral and anal fins.
White spots on the body form horizontal rows (vs. the Cortez grunt that has white spots arranged in oblique rows).
Deeper bodied than other snappers. Back dark greenish brown to brown, fading to lighter shades of copper, reddish brown or maroon sides and belly. Solitary, may mix with yellow snappers.
White with yellowish areas. Orange saddle outlined in black on snout. Short horns or spines over eyes. Common throughout region and the tropical Indo-Pacific.
Gray to brown. Row of three retractile spines on base of tail. The similar yellowtailed surgeonfish (P. laticlavius) is only found in the Galapagos and lacks the black spots.