Adults have a characteristic caudal fin shape.
20 or darker cross bands on the side of the body. Juveniles brownish with indistinct dark marking usually found in mangroves or inlet waters. This species grows to 1.8 meters and occasionally known to attack humans. Closely related to S. jello because of the body stripes but the end of the maxilla does not reach vertically to the anterior margin of the eye. S. bleekeri has unique chevronshaped markings on the body and its preopercle is also obliquely round.