Body cylindrical, its greatest depth in front of dorsal-fin origin, sometimes with a small hump; head flat with straight to concave dorsal profile and depressed snout; eyes slightly protruding above dorsal profile of head; anterior nostril pierced on front side of a flap; processus dentiformis present; no median notch in upper lip, median incision in lower lip; shallow median notch in lower jaw; lateral line complete; anus about 1-2 eye diameters in front of anal-fin origin; 8.5 branched dorsal-fin rays; 5.5 branched anal-fin rays; caudal fin emarginate, with 9+8 branched rays; axillary pelvic lobe present; body with 7-9 bars, wider than interspaces, not very contrasted in front of dorsal-fin origin, not very regular; black bar at caudal-fin base almost complete but faint, often only contrasted on middle half of base, not reaching dorsal and ventral midlines; dorsal-fin base with a black spot anteriorly, followed by an orange spot and an elongate grey blotch; base of rays of upper caudal-fin lobe orange with a cloud of black pigments; body sometimes plain dark brown (Ref. 36949).