Can be diagnosed by a combination of the following characters: ventral keel well-defined, sharp, scaleless or only slightly scaled; snout short, slightly pointed; mouth terminal with the tip of the mouth cleft on a level with the upper half of the pupil; eye large with orbit width about equal to interorbital width; 47-51 lateral-line scales to posterior margin of hypurals (47-57 total lateral-line scales); 2.5-4.2 pharyngeal teeth; dorsal-fin usually with 8½ branched rays; anal fin usually with 13-16½ branched rays; 40-42, usually 41, total vertebrae; caudal vertebral region longer than abdominal region (most frequent vertebral formulae 20+21, 20+22 and 19+21); and usually 13 or 14 predorsal vertebrae (Ref. 91777).

Description: dorsal fin with 3-4 unbranched rays and 8½ - 9½ branched rays (Ref. 91777).