Devario malabaricus differs from all its congeners by the combination of the following characters: absence of process on 1st infraorbital; body depth 27-35 %SL; predorsal scales15-17; dorsal fin with 11½-12½ branched rays; anal fin with 12½-17½ branched rays; presence of danionin notch; origin of dorsal fin to hypural distance when carried forward falling well short of posterior border of eye; tip of pectoral fin almost reaching origin of pelvic fin when adpressed; snout length subequal to or greater than eye diameter; P stripe originating level with pelvic-fin origin, 1-2 scale-widths anterior to dorsal-fin origin; P-1 stripe less than half width of P stripe, bifurcated anteriorly by a more or less broken whitish line; 5-6 dark, irregular, vertical bars on the anterior half of body; and absence of nuptial tubercles in both sexes (ref. 118056).