Moderately convex dorsal head profile, short snout, terminal mouth and broad bands of contiguously set teeth. Distinguished from males of all species of Neochromis by having enlarged cephalic pores, and large scales on the lateral chest surface, gradually changing to small ones only at the level of the ventral fin insertions. Differs further from N. simotes by having a deeper body (38.4% SL vs. 34.0-35.7), a shorter (26.9% HL vs. 30.8-32.5) and narrower (31.7% HL vs. 35.4-37.7) snout, smaller preorbital depth (14.9% HL vs. 16.8-18.7); larger eyes (30.9% HL vs. 27.1-28.7), a shorter (30.1% HL vs. 30.8-33.1) and narrower (27.7-% HL vs. 32.8-34.4) lower jaw, subequally bicuspid crowns to the teeth in the outer rows, fewer inner tooth rows in both jaws (5), larger scales on the occiput, cycloid scales on the caudal part of the dorsum, larger scales on the chest, and the lack of small cycloid scales on the anal/genital region (Ref. 27668).