This species is distinguished from all its congeners by the following characters: body uniform bright blue to bluish-green, bright-blue dorsal, anal, and caudal fins, submarginally black with white distal margin, series of brown to maroon-red, rounded, oblong or clover-shaped blotches or spots on dorsolateral, postorbital, and ventrolateral region of head, continued on body forming oblique pattern or randomly distributed; similar to C. pardalis and C. bipuli in appearance, but differs from both in having brown to maroon-red, rounded, oblong or clover-shaped blotches or spots on head and sides of the body (vs. possession of well-defined, black to brown, rounded to oblong spots), fewer pre-dorsal scales 7 (vs. 8–9), more caudal-fin rays 15 (vs. 13), and more vertebrae 49 (vs. 45) (Ref. 131046).