Its body is long, thin and oval-shaped. The mouth is small, with thick lips, and the teeth are close together forming a horn-like mandible. The large stripped scales found on the lower part of the pelvic fin compose this beautiful animal. As fry the coloring is more intense: white body with blue spots. As adults they are dark brown with a lighter tone on the abdominal region. It reaches up to 60 cm. in length in the Atlantic species and 40 cm. in the Mediterranean.