| Main Ref. | Shao, K.-T. and J.-P. Chen, 1988 |
| Appearance refers to | |
| Bones in OsteoBase |
| Specialized organs | other |
| Different appearance | always different morphology between mature adults |
| Different colors | |
| Remarks | Males with brood pouch; females with ovipositor (Ref. 205). |
| Striking features | striking shape of body |
| Body shape lateral | eel-like |
| Cross section | compressed |
| Dorsal head profile | more or less straight |
| Type of eyes | more or less normal |
| Type of mouth/snout | tube-like |
| Position of mouth | terminal |
| Type of scales | |
| Diagnosis |
Body orange yellow when fresh. Trunk rings 20, tail rings 15. Lateral trunk ridge continuous with inferior tail ridge; superior trunk and tail ridges extending forward over 4 trunk rings. Three serrated ridges dorsally on snout, the median ridge heavily serrated. Body ridges illustrating single spine except anterior six of superior trunk ridge and 3 lateral trunk ridge which has double spines. No ventrolateral projection on the snout. Description: Characterized by orange color with blue lateral stripe; large orange spot on middle of caudal fin and two smaller spots at base; length of snout 1.9-2.2 in head length; depth of snout 4.8-6.2 in snout length; head length 4.3-5.3 in SL (Ref. 90102). |
| Ease of Identification |
| Lateral Lines | Interrupted: No |
| Scales on lateral line | |
| Pored lateral line scales | |
| Scales in lateral series | |
| Scale rows above lateral line | |
| Scale rows below lateral line | |
| Scales around caudal peduncle | |
| Barbels | |
| Gill clefts (sharks/rays only) | |
| Gill rakers | |
| on lower limb | |
| on upper limb | |
| total | |
| Vertebrae | |
| preanal | |
| total |
| Attributes | |
| Fins number | |
| Finlets No. | Dorsal |
| Ventral | |
| Spines total | |
| Soft-rays total | 21 - 23 |
| Adipose fin |
| Attributes | more or less truncate; more or less normal |
| Fins number | |
| Spines total | |
| Soft-rays total | 4 - 4 |
| Pectoral | Attributes |
| Spines | |
| Soft-rays 19 - 23 | |
| Pelvics | Attributes suppressed/absent |
| Position absent | |
| Spines | |
| Soft-rays |