Brown with pale spots on head and chest, thin pale lines on body, bluish mouth, almost straight rear tail margin and often yellow ring around eye. Juveniles bright yellow. Blueish mouth and less lunate tail shape distinguish it from C. binotatus (Twospot Surgeonfish), C. striatus (Lined Bristletooth), Acanthurus nigrofuscus (Dusky Surgeonfish) and A. nigroris (Greyhead Surgeonfish). Juvenile easily confused with other yellow surgeonfish juveniles - best distinguished by body shape and presence of adults.

• Max Size: 16 cm
• Sea Temperature Range: 23.0-31.2°C
• Depth: 1-46m
• Habitat: Coral Reef
• Habitat Generalisation Index: 13.4
  Also referred to as the SGI (Species generalisation index), this describes the habitat niche breadth of the species. Species with values less than 15 are found in a relatively narrow range of reef habitat types (specialists), while those over 25 may be found on most hard substrates within their range (generalists). Learn more here

• IUCN Threat Status: Least Concern
• Occurrence: Frequent (20% of sites)
  Occurrence describes how often the species is found on surveys within its distribution. It is calculated as the % of reef sites surveyed by RLS divers across all the ecoregions in which the species has been observed
• Abundance: Several (10 per transect)
  Abundance is calculated as the average number of individuals recorded per RLS transect, where present.