This species is distinguished from all congeners, except with H. elachys, H. heliacus, H. loweae, by having a conspicuously elongated and filamentous dorsal fin in mature males (vs. dorsal and pelvic fins, when elongated, never filamentous), by its overall red color when alive (vs. a general clear/silvery color in elachys and golden color in heliacus, loweae); further differs from elachys by having a straight margin of anal fin in mature males (vs. a distinctly rounded anal-fin lobe elachys ); differs from heliacus by having a shorter pelvic-fins in fully mature males, reaching only the second anal-fin branched ray (vs. pelvic-fins filamentous, reaching to the sixth anal-fin branched ray) and by lacking chevron-like dark markings along the midline (vs. chevron-like dark markings along the midline present); differs from loweae by having a lower number of horizontal scale rows between the dorsal-fin origin and the lateral line 5 (vs.6-7) and by the higher number of branched anal-fin rays 21-24, modally 22 (vs. 17-21, modally 20) (Ref. 93222).