Salema

Kyphosus ocyurus has an elongated, compressed, oval shaped body. The ventral and dorsal profiles of the head are convex with a short snout and a very short, horizontal mouth which opens at the front. The upper jaw is partially concealed beneath the orbital bones when the mouth is closed and the teeth are small, fixed and are incisor-like with flattened tips. There are also teeth in the middle of the roof of the mouth. It has a continuous dorsal fin which has 11 spines in the anterior part which fold down into a scaled groove and 13 soft rays in the posterior part. The anal fin has three spines and 14 soft rays and is low. The caudal fin deeply forked. All of the body is covered in small, thick and rough scales except for the snout. The body of this species is distinctively coloured with two wavy horizontal stripes, one yellow and one bluish, starting at the mouth and extending to the caudal peduncle. The head is yellow to silvery marked with a blue streak behind eye on he dill cover. It is metallic blue on the back and white on the underparts. It attains a maximum total length of 59 centimetres (23 in) although a more common size is a total length of 25 centimetres (9.8 in) and the maximum published weight is 2.0 kilograms (4.4 lb).

Kyphosus ocyurus is found in the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean from the Galapagos Islands to Hawaii west to the Izu Islands of Japan and including Guam, Palau and the Marquesas Islands. It also occurs off the American coast from southern California to Peru.