The marbled parrotfish is brown to green with darker mottling on the back fading to yellow or greenish ventrally.

The distinctive narrow dental plates are fused into a parrot-like beak and are covered in numerous small teeth.

[5] The marbled parrotfish lives in sheltered bays, harbours and lagoons among seagrass beds and algal-covered reefs.

[1] The marbled parrotfish was first formally described as Scarus vaigiensis in 1824 by the French naval surgeons and naturalists Jean René Constant Quoy (1790–1869) and Joseph Paul Gaimard (1793-1858) in their book Voyage autour du monde.

[1] In Queensland there is a limit of 5 marbled parrotfishes in a maximum bag of 20 coral reef fishes and they must be no less than 25 centimetres (9.8 in) long.