Can be differentiated from its congeners in the combination of following characters: skin heavily keratinized, cranium and interneural covered with numerous large, elongate tubercles, supraoccipital and interneural without sharp ridges, skin above neural spines anterior and posterior to adipose fin never forming distinct ridges, slender elongate neural spines, elliptical eyes, body depth at anus 11.0-12.3 %SL, head width 20.3-21.7 %SL, snout length 51.4-54.7 %HL, eye diameter 4.1-8.1 %HL; 12-13 pectoral-fin rays; caudal fin with 8-9 rays; 23-24 preanal vertebrae; adipose fin with short base and angular dorsal margin; dark yellow on dorsal and lateral surfaces of head and body, fading to light yellow on ventral region; dorsal surfaces of head and body with three darkly pigmented (brown) bands or blotches; a few small brown spots irregularly distributed throughout lighter parts of body; light yellow fins with a variable pattern of small brown spots distributed irregularly, orange fins in life (Ref. 37037). Adipose origin in front or above anal fin origin; longitudinal diameter of eye 12-24 times in HL (Ref. 43281).