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Dorsal soft rays (total): 20-23; Anal soft rays: 11-15; Vertebrae: 50-52. Body deep, massive. Scales large, densely sitting. Snout oval, mouth terminal. Upper jaw not extending beyond midorbit. Main body coloration is gray-black. Dorsum dark, monotonous. Abdomen white. From the throat to
ventral fins, two weakly pronounced parallel brownish yellow stripes running. Branchiostegal rays with a yellowish shade. Beyond gill cover to insertion of the seventh unbranched ray of dorsal fin, eight small black spots of different shape with a diameter of 1–3 mm are scattered. Above ventral fins, below lateral line, scales have a weak reddish shade. Caudal peduncle large, extending to adipose fin in a folded state. Its upper edge wide, oval. Dorsal fin pattern consists of several series of red-crimson spots of different shape. In its anterior part, poorly distinguishable spots are only near the insertion as three to four narrow horizontal stripes, while, in the posterior part, their number increases to seven. Closer to the middle of the fin, spots become rounded in the shape and well noticeable. Spots of the upper row are the largest, of an irregular shape, vertically and horizontally extended. Their margins extend to neighboring interradial membranes, sometimes fusing with the margin, forming a kind of a continuous wide tortuous stripe. Rows located lower are formed of oval spots of a smaller size with a narrow dull framing. Along rays of ventral fins, four stripes of red-claret color pass. Between the first and the second stripes there is an additional shortened stripe of the same color. Adipose fin large, of lilac color. Pectoral fins monotonous, yellowish gray. |
