| Main Ref. | Higuchi, M., H. Sakai and A. Goto, 2014 |
| Appearance refers to | |
| Bones in OsteoBase |
| Specialized organs | |
| Different appearance | always different morphology between mature adults |
| Different colors | |
| Remarks | Females have significantly greater relative preanal length than males, although the latter had significantly greater head length, caudal peduncle depth, anal fin base length, first and second spine lengths, depth of lateral plate above anus, snout length, upper jaw length and depth of lateral plate in lateral plate above the anus. Males have more anal fin soft rays . |
| Striking features | |
| Body shape lateral | fusiform / normal |
| Cross section | |
| Dorsal head profile | |
| Type of eyes | |
| Type of mouth/snout | |
| Position of mouth | |
| Type of scales | |
| Diagnosis |
Gasterosteus nipponicus is distinguished from its congeners by the combination of the following characters: lateral plates complete, abruptly reducing in size above the anus, depth of lateral plate above the anus <60 % that of the deepest plate; and caudal keels thin and membranous (Ref. 96096). |
| 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 | 30 - 34 |
| Attributes | no striking attributes |
| Fins number | |
| Finlets No. | Dorsal |
| Ventral | |
| Spines total | 3 - 3 |
| Soft-rays total | 10 - 15 |
| Adipose fin | absent |
| Attributes | more or less truncate |
| Fins number | |
| Spines total | |
| Soft-rays total | 7 - 11 |
| Pectoral | Attributes more or less normal |
| Spines | |
| Soft-rays 10 - 10 | |
| Pelvics | Attributes more or less normal |
| Position abdominal behind origin of D1 | |
| Spines | |
| Soft-rays |