This species, a member of the Gachua group, is distinguished from all other Myanmar species of this group by the colour pattern of its head consisting of a bright orange suborbital patch combined with steel blue lips; with fewer dorsal-fin rays, 32-34 (vs. 34-40), anal-fin rays, 20-22 (vs. 22-27) and vertebrae, 40-41 (vs. 41-48). It also differs substantially from all Myanmar Gachua group snakeheads by a genetic distance of 10.1-18.8% in the COI gene (Ref. 131044).