The body has a pale khaki colour broken by 10 or so long brown vertical bars.

[3] Kyphosus azureus is a shallow water species found in inshore areas down to depths of 8 metres (26 ft).

Juveniles behave as cleaner fish for the opaleye (Girella nigricans) and shiner perch {Cymatogaster aggregata) They are often form mixed schools with halfmoon (Medianluna californiensis) Opaleye, and Pacific sergeant major (Abudefduf troschelii).

[2] Kyphosus azureus was first formally described in 1889 by Oliver Peebles Jenkins and Barton Warren Evermann as Hermosilla azurea and they gave the type locality as Guaymas, Sonora in western Mexico.

[5] In 2013 a review of the family Kyphosidae found that the monospecific genus Hermosilla was a synonym of Kyphosus.