| Main Ref. | Freyhof, J. and F. Herder, 2002 |
| Appearance refers to | |
| Bones in OsteoBase |
| Specialized organs | |
| Different appearance | |
| Different colors | |
| Remarks | Males have longer soft caudal, dorsal and anal-fin rays and grow larger than females (Ref. 42924). |
| Striking features | none |
| Body shape lateral (shape guide) | short and / or deep |
| Cross section | |
| Dorsal head profile | more or less straight |
| Type of eyes | |
| Type of mouth/snout | |
| Position of mouth | |
| Type of scales | |
| Diagnosis |
Differs from its congeners by the following combination of characters: caudal fin forked; conspicuous dark brown opercular spot; distal part of first soft pelvic-fin ray white; posterior tip or margin of scales on body conspicuously darker than scales, not darker than scales on head and predorsal back; dark spots on top of head; predorsal back with 3-5 dark brown saddle-like blotches; spots and bars on dorsal and caudal-fin membranes grey in preserved and red in live specimens (Ref. 42924). |
| Ease of Identification |
| Lateral Lines | Interrupted: No |
| Scales on lateral line | 30 - 32 |
| Pored lateral line scales | |
| Scales in lateral series | |
| Scale rows above lateral line | |
| Scale rows below lateral line | |
| Scales around caudal peduncle | 16 - 17 |
| Barbels | |
| Gill clefts (sharks/rays only) | |
| Gill rakers | |
| on lower limb | |
| on upper limb | |
| total | 12 - 17 |
| Vertebrae | |
| preanal | |
| total | 29 - 30 |
| Attributes | |
| Fins number | 1 |
| Finlets No. | Dorsal |
| Ventral | |
| Spines total | 13 - 14 |
| Soft-rays total | 7 - 8 |
| Adipose fin | absent |
| Attributes | forked; with dorsal and ventral filament |
| Fins number | |
| Spines total | 17 - 19 |
| Soft-rays total | 13 - 14 |
| Pectoral | Attributes more or less normal |
| Spines | |
| Soft-rays 10 - 12 | |
| Pelvics | Attributes rays very elongated |
| Position abdominal before origin of D1 | |
| Spines | |
| Soft-rays |