This species is distinguished by the following combination of characters: snout short, broadly rounded in dorsoventral view; minimum distance from mouth to nostril 1.1-1.6 times nostril width; lips usually concealing teeth when closed mouth; lower teeth with erect, narrow, moderately hooked to straight cusps, with notched mesial and distal edges, and low mesial and distal shoulders or blades (except in posterior teeth); anteroposterior tooth row counts 13-15/13-15; total tooth row counts 28-31/29-32 or 60-63; interdorsal space 17.0-19.5% TL; anterior margin of pectoral fin slightly convex, pectoral length 11.6-13.4% TL; length of pelvic-fin anterior margin 6.3-7.7% TL, 36-40% of length of pectoral-fin anterior margin; pelvic-fin height 4.6-6.3% TL; first dorsal fin not falcate, with concave posterior margin, free rear tip just anterior to pelvic-fin origins, its length 16.9-19.1% TL; second dorsal-fin length 10.5-12.3% TL, anterior margin length 7.5-9.7% TL, its base length 7.4-9.3% TL and 1.4-1.9 times second dorsal-fin height, its height 4.7-6.0% TL and 58-68% of first dorsal height; anal-fin height 4.1-5.0% TL and 74-102% of second dorsal-fin height, its base 65-94% of second dorsal-fin base; caudal-fin subterminal margin weakly concave; total vertebral count 196-209; monospondylous precaudal count 60-67, 30-33% of total count; diplospondylous precaudal count 43-52, 22-26% of total count; diplospondylous caudal count 82-96, 42-46% of total count; precaudal count 108-114, 54-58% of total count; boundary coloration (watermark) on head diffuse, extending through lower level of eye; in young, watermark well defined, diffuse along trunk, situated near lateral midline; dorsal, pectoral, pelvic and anal fins plain; ventral caudal-fin lobe, and postventral and dorsal margins, dusky to blackish (Ref. 84281).