This species is distinguished from its congeners by the following characters: dorsal and anal unbranched fin rays are poorly pigmented (vs. first unbranched dorsal and all unbranched anal-fin rays with dense concentration of dark brown chromatophores), absence of two symmetrical conspicuous small dark blotches at the base of the caudal-fin rays, but if present are diffuse (vs. presence); pectoral fin with i8 rays (vs. i9-11); differs from camelierae by having the anterior midlateral stripe reaching the dorsal-fin region (vs. stripe reaching the caudal peduncle blotch), triangular caudal peduncle blotch (vs. round), lateral line incomplete (vs. complete), lower number of longitudinal scales 33-36 (vs. 37-38), circumpeduncular scales 10-11 (vs. 12), ventral margin of the third infraorbital bone not reaching the anterodorsal margin of preopercle (vs. surpassing that point), precaudal vertebrae 12 (vs. 13); differs from lindeae by usually having smaller horizontal eye diameter 38.6-43.2% of HL (vs. 42.1-52.4%) (Ref. 130247).