Blunt-head parrotfish

Chlorurus microrhinos usually grows to be about 80 centimetres (31 in) long. These parrotfishes are greenish blue, with a brilliant blue band behind the corner of the mouth and a wide blue patch along the head. Rarely some individuals may be uniformly yellowish-tan. The cheek is crossed by an irregular line, below which the colour is usually greenish-yellow. Larger fishes are uniformly dark, greenish brown, turning into greenish blue only with age, but they do not undergo as radical a color change with growth as do other scarids. They have nine dorsal spines, 10 dorsal soft rays, 3 anal spines and 9 anal soft ray. The tail is crescent shaped in large terminal males, while in juveniles is rounded. Adults show large exposed blue-green tooth plates, with one or two canines on each side of the upper plate. Large males develop a prominent forehead (hence the common name of blunt-head parrotfishes). Juveniles are black with some horizontal white stripes. Some geographic variation exists between Red Sea, Western Indian Ocean, and Pacific populations, and an unusual reddish-tan phase occurs in the central Pacific.