Distinguished from its congeners endemic to the Amazon and Orinoco basins and the Guyana Shield in having a color pattern of 14-20 oblique, dark, pigment bands with wavy and irregular margins in which the majority of bands are branched ventrally to form inverted Y-shaped patterns (in adults), in which the dark bands are about twice as broad as the pale interbands and in which the bands rarely form X-shaped patterns at midbody. Further differs in having the following unique combination of characters: clear (unpigmented) patch at the caudal end of the anal-fin membrane in specimens 6-23.5 cm; bands never divided to form band pairs (Ref. 55508).