Hemiramphus balao

Diagnosis: body elongate; lower jaw forming long, narrow beak; upper jaw short, triangular and scaled; absence of scales on snout; no preorbital crest between eye and nasal pit; pelvic fins abdominal; dorsal and anal fins placed far back on body and spineless; caudal fin deeply forked (Ref. 57227). Description: fins spineless; pectoral fins long, tips reaching to nasal pits when fins folded forwards; lower lobe caudal fin longer than upper (Ref. 57227). Coloration: back bluish, belly silvery white; beak black with fleshy tip red; upper lobe of caudal fin purple-bluish with tip red; lower lobe bluish (Ref. 57227).

• Hemirhamphus balao Lesueur, 1821
• Hemiramphus guineensis Bleeker, 1863
• Hemiramphus pleii Valenciennes, 1847
• Hemirhamphus macrochirus Poey, 1860
• Hemiramphus vittatus Valenciennes, 1843