This species is distinguished by the following characters: D III,XXIV-XXVI,3; A II,l7-19 (rarely 17); pectoral rays 12-13 (rarely 12); gill rakers on outer face of first arch 2-3 + 7-9 = 8-11, rarely 11; circumorbital head pores uniserial (13-18 pores); orbital tentacle absent; nasal tentacle bilobed or rarely trilobed, flap as long as the tubular base; middle gill rakers and often uppermost rakers on outer face of first arch are branched dorsally; first dorsal fin low (second dorsal spine 6.9-12.4% SL, not showing significant change with size) originating over or slightly behind the posterior preopercular margin; third spine originating over or just behind pelvic fin base; last dorsal ray connected by a membrane to caudal peduncle about half way from base of last ray to base of caudal fin; body slender, proportion increasing with size (depth at anal origin 17.5-2.25% SL in specimens 2.58-5.0 cm SL, 21.9-27.1% SL in specimens 5.1-8.3 cm SL and 23.7-27.9 % SL in specimens 8.4-14.1 cm SL). Colouration: snout dark, often with a stripe from eye to middle of upper lip; dark stripe from dorsoposterior margin of eye continuing onto body below anterior half of dorsal fins; second horizontal dark stripe from posterior margin of the eye arching upward to above pectoral fin, connecting with second dark stripe on body often broken into a series of disconnected large dark brown spots; sometimes with a white of silver stripe behind eye below dark stripe and sometimes with a dark bar below eye; body sometimes a with thin dark stripe above anal fin; clear windows usually only present between the last dorsal and last two anal rays and sometimes between some posterior anal rays (Ref. 132458).