Diagnosis: adipose fin always present; posterior nostrils closer to each other than anterior ones; lower jaw reaching slightly beyond upper jaw; nasal, maxillary and inner mandibular barbels rather short; nasal barbel reaches at maximum to just beyond posterior border of eye; maxillary barbel hardly reaches further than nasal one; inner mandibular barbel never reaches beyond anterior border of eye; outer mandibular barbel reaches at least to midway between eye and opercle and at maximum to just beyond anterior border of opercle; inner side of pectoral spine feebly serrated; head profile characterized by presence of a pronounced hump between occiput and base of rayed dorsal fin (Ref. 43912).

Description: 60-68 branched anal fin rays; 48-49 non-fused vertebrae; 9-11 branchiostegal rays on one side of head; caudal peduncle somewhat deeper than long (Ref. 43912). This species is very similar to S. intermedius (especially to the morphotype with an adipose fin) which is also known from some east African coastal basins; in S. moebiusii however, the nasal barbels are rather short and never reach beyond the posterior border of the eye (longer in S. intermedius), a pronounced postoccipital hump seems always present (a rare phenomenon in S. intermedius) and it shows a fairly high number of branched anal fin rays (60-68, against a total variation of 41-66 branched soft rays in all populations of S. intermedius)(Ref. 43912).

Coloration: preserved specimens: brown dorsally; sides silver-yellow; base of anal fin brown-red; anal fin border sometimes dark brown; caudal fin base light brown (Ref. 43912).