Body color is yellow to greenish-blue, becoming lighter ventrally; usually with nine or ten dusky yellow-green or brown bars. The head is purplish gray, sometimes with a red blotch on the nape. A red bar is at the base of pectoral fin, sometimes extending broadly below and above the pectoral fin base to the edge of the operculum. The base of the upper and sometimes lower rays of pectoral fin is red. The base and tips of the pelvic fins are often red. The membranes of the dorsal fin is red (sometimes restricted to the base of the fins). The anal fin is whitish with the membranes between the forward rays often red. The caudal fin, especially the tips is reddish.