This species is distinguished from its congeners by the following set of characters: a distinctive dark vertical blotch placed laterally on the abdominal flanks in adult males, just immediately dorsal to the urogenital region; a well-developed vertically humeral blotch in adult males; possession of numerous (2-12) tiny bony hooks on nearly all the upper lobe caudal-fin rays in adult males; number of vertebrae 43; posterior portion of the maxilla not reaching the vertical through the anterior border of the eye when the mouth is closed; an elongated maxillary anterior process, representing proportionally 40% or more of the total length of the bone; bony hooks in adult males on nearly all the branched anal-fin rays present; simple terminal lateral-line tube present between the caudal-fin rays 11 and 12; number of circumpeduncular scales 13-14; distance between dorsal- and adipose-fin origins 20.4-24.4% SL, dorsal-fin to caudal-fin base 33.0-39.6% SL, eye to dorsal-fin origin 51.9-57.2% SL; upper jaw length 38.1-45.5% HL; maximum number of cusps on the maxillary teeth tricuspid; number of supraneurals 11; number of dentary teeth 13-17; number of radii on the lateral-line scales 5-9; number of maxillary teeth 2-4; shape of the distal tips of most maxillary teeth straight along their lengths; depth at dorsal-fin origin 27.5-33.5% SL; distance between dorsal- and adipose-fin origins 20.4-24.4% SL (Ref 133163).